a golden tinge, a reddish hue
by ansera
Summary: After almost a century in the Volterra, living with the members of the Volturi, Edward Cullen pays a visit to his family at Forks. There, he hears a voice in his head, that of a boy whom he's never even met. Edward/Jacob. Feedback at LJ welcomed.
1. Chapter 1

His fingers flew over the alternating black and white, the ensuing melody slow and soft in comparison. The music was not something that he had practiced and overplayed to the extent that the same people –he used the term loosely in his mind— who had been enraptured by it during its composition now complained if they heard it.

It was something new, foreign.

"I like it."

His hands ceased their movement. The words were softly spoken –too soft for a human to have heard, even without the sound of the music filling the air. But Edward heard them clearly. The muscles in his arm clenched slightly before he forced them to relax.

"Aro." His tone was cordial, but not inviting.

Aro took no notice of his tone. "Edward," he greeted a sardonic edge to his reply. Edward felt Aro's presence near his shoulder in less than a second, an impressive feat considering the size of the room –impressive to humans, yet not to him.

The room itself was his alone, a few doors away from his bedroom, with only a handcrafted piano –Aro had bought it for him, after listening to Bach play it once. Although the Aro himself had never learnt the art, Edward had.

"What is it called?" Aro asked, a hand sliding over the keys.

Edward cocked his head to the side slightly. "I haven't decided."

Aro hummed in response. Edward didn't know why he bothered with the façade of concern. They both knew that he didn't care. He didn't know why he played along either. Edward waited for the real reason behind Aro's presence as the other vampire stalled, fingers pressing at the keys clumsily. Edward didn't hide his amused smirk as a medley of notes that weren't in the slightest smooth burst out. No matter how many years passed, the art of producing music was beyond Aro.

Aro lifted his hand, and Edward knew that if he turned his head, Aro would be wearing that slight pout that he had once found charming; a hundred years made more of a difference than one would think. Aro huffed before taking a seat next to Edward dramatically; his body warmer than Edward's, as it had always been.

"Marcus tells me that you intend to return to Carlisle."

Aro's voice was his usual mask of coolness and calm, as though he wasn't at all perturbed by the thought of one of his own leaving. Edward had known this man for long enough a time to sense the nuances where others would hear none: a flinch when mentioning the possibility of his leaving, a pause of less than a millisecond before saying Carlisle's name.

Edward devoted the latter to a part of his memory carefully labeled 'Carlisle and Aro,' different from the parts that were simply 'Carlisle' or 'Aro', but rather the two of them_together_. The thought caused him to pause, but Aro was looking at him expectantly, and he shoved it with the rest of the moments –only a handful, spread years apart—to seriously consider the statement.

He finally admitted. "I'm thinking about it."

"How long?"

There was no need to explain the question. "The past year." The answer made Aro let out a soft sigh of relief and twisted glee. A year, for someone like Aro, was an infinitesimal amount of time compared to the eternity for which he would live; had lived.

"You never thought to tell me before." It was somewhere between a question –_You don't trust me with your secrets? You don't consider me an important part of your life? Marcus is more important to you?_— and a statement –_You've only begun to seriously consider the decision. Something has caused you to change your mind. Marcus is more important to you._

Edward cleared the only doubt he was presented with. "I only told Marcus because I knew that he would pass the information on to you." The explanation was only a half-truth. Marcus was the only person who would look at him without judgment regardless of what he chose.

Aro nodded slowly. "I see." Edward smiled at the statement. Aro's mannerisms had not changed much over the century; he only ever said, _"I see"_ when he did not and also did not want to flaunt his ignorance. The only thing that had changed was the extent of Edward's understanding. "You wish to leave the Volturi-"

"As my _father_ did," Edward ended. They shared a small smile at the words. Father, the one who had turned him. Father, the one who had raised him when he was less than a decade old. Father, the one who had cared for him when he had been torn between fighting the Hunger because of his lingering humanity and giving in to it because of his growing vampirism. Father, the position he would assume once Edward left. Father meaning Carlisle.

"I've always thought you would," Aro said thoughtfully. "You are both extremely alike."

"In terms of our eating habits?"

"Amongst other things." The comment surprised Edward. Carlisle and he looked nothing alike, aside from the pale shade of skin which all vampires shared. And where Carlisle was compassionate and inviting, Edward preferred his own company and didn't encourage friendships, even amongst the Volturi itself. Not to mention that Carlisle was stronger than any vampire he knew –to live next to humans, see their blood, feel the Hunger and yet not act on it-

His fists clenched, something ugly like jealousy welling up in him of its own accord. He knew it was wrong, because Carlisle had felt the same urges when he was as young as Edward, and he had forced himself to ignore them, as Edward tried to. To feel as if it were unfair was wrong of him.

But, the part of him that was human still felt it.

His back slumped slightly –cringing into himself—before he straightened. He had adopted the practice of feeding on animals –not difficult since Aro made sure that they were brought in for him—but he also ensured that he wasn't tempted. He spent as much time indoors as Sulpicia and Athenodora.

Aro smiled at him. "You will be able to resist the hunger," he said confidently.

"Oh?" Edward grinned before continuing in a teasing tone. "I thought that Alice's gift was beyond both of us."

Aro let out a short laugh. "Indeed, our dear Alice has a gift that is vastly different than my own. But, I have the advantage of knowing you where Alice does not," Aro said smugly. He was not wrong. Aro definitely knew him better than most, the only other person who surpassed him was Carlisle.

"Will you be staying for long?" Aro asked, now somewhat more assured in Edward's alliances and asking for politeness' sake alone.

Edward shrugged. "Depends."

"On what?"

Edward shrugged again. "Circumstances."

Aro was silent for a few moments, and he squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, before he pressed down on the key before him. The shrill of the F sharp rang in the air. Then, "It would be a pity for us to lose yet another one of you elusive Cullens."

"I didn't say that I would stay with Carlisle," Edward pointed out, although the unsaid, _"But you didn't say otherwise,"_ hung heavily in the air with the dull echoing ring of the note. Aro pressed C before the previous note could completely die out.

"We shall see," he said, tone measured to be somewhere between formal and casual.

"So we shall," Edward echoed the sentiment.

"Tell Carlisle I send my regards," Aro said slowly. Edward nodded. "And Esme," he smiled, and Edward inwardly flinched away from the ugly thoughts of Aro; thoughts Edward couldn't resist listening to. "Is she still cooking, I wonder, such a human task," he said, as though it were the worst thing a vampire could do. It could be, he guessed, to Aro. "Of course, you would be thinking slightly more of our beautiful Rosalie," he sent a sly look in Edward's direction.

"She has Emmett," he said sharply. "They're mates, Aro, even you wouldn't dare come between them."

Mating was important, to be respected. Carlisle had told him once –years ago, sometime after meeting Esme—what is was like. He likened it to the feeling of feeding on humans, although he only knew it from accounts that other vampires, not 'vegetarian', had given him. His world narrowed to the point that nothing else existed except his mate and him. It was almost as though a sort of warmth had crept into his skin and spread its way across his body, palpable compared to the coldness they normally felt.

Edward wondered if he would ever be able to feel what Carlisle had with Esme.

"I am no fool," Aro said, frowning at him.

"I didn't say you were," Edward sighed, suddenly feeling tired, old beyond his years. He gave a sardonic smile at the thought, it was apt for his- situation. "But I do know that everybody lusts after Rosalie, and that you may let that overcome you."

"I would never, Edward," Aro sounded offended. Edward thought he heard a twinge of guilt behind it, since they both knew that he would if the opportunity presented itself, but it was gone too quickly for him to pinpoint it.

"It does not matter, nothing shall befall Emmett, and they will probably live together forever," Edward said. The word gave him pause; forever was a long time, and it had yet to cease to amaze him just _how_ long. One day it would, as it had Aro and Carlisle. He didn't know whether he was looking forward to that day.

"Let us hope so," Aro hummed, and Edward didn't know which he was referring to –somebody harming Emmett or the couple's long life ahead. He didn't venture to guess either, in case it was the former.

"Jasper is still with them," Edward said for the sake of polite conversation.

"Oh?" Aro used the same tone. "Astonishing power, it must be difficult to be around so many humans at once."

"He has enough control over his Hunger," Edward said wearily. Even though he hadn't moved, his body felt tired whenever around Aro.

"It was not his Hunger I was speaking of. Humans have no control over their emotions, to feel everything that they do so acutely," Aro's eyes closed for a moment before he opened them again. They were red eyes heavy with emotion that wasn't his to feel. "That boy's mind is a wonder," he added almost as an afterthought.

Of course, Aro had touched Jasper twice now. "I would think so."

"Carlisle takes care of his own, though, soon to include you," Aro said, his tone signaling the end of the conversation. Edward didn't reply. Aro stood up quickly and walked out, throwing back at him, "Find a name for your song," before the door slammed shut. It was a long while before Edward resumed playing.

He did not know the origin behind this song.

Sometimes thoughts would break into his mind from unknown sources –one of the humans visiting, perhaps—and he had to play, hands moving of their own accord to play out what his head thought. Aro and the others knew that it would be useless to try speak to him at such times.

"A name," he muttered to himself, a habit he had picked up in the 1960s, after meeting a group of hippies during one of his hunts. He had stayed with them for a period of time, never quite blending in –his gentlemanly ways and polite speech made that impossible—but they had accepted him nonetheless. Aro, he remembered, had not been pleased.

Aro had eventually killed them and Edward had returned to the Volturi.

The song started slow, almost gentle, before speeding up to a climax, then breaking down again. A cycle of highs and lows that reflected his life and something or maybe_someone_-

Edward stopped playing when he heard the sound of audible breathing from his bedroom.

It wasn't difficult to pinpoint –most of the vampires did not bother with the pretence of breathing while within the building, and there were only a handful of people who dared to enter his room in his absence. His fingers twitched with annoyance at having to leave before he hefted his body up, lips pursing. The rush of breath –in and out, in and out, a steady motion that was more vampire than human— stopped as his feet took slow steps towards the door. He was going to his room, and they had both heard him. There was no need to try and get his attention any longer.

He walked slowly, not using any of the speed that he had been gifted, to annoy the man in his room, and then smirked when a small exhalation of air signaled the annoyance of the man. Edward opened the large doors to his room, the same that he had used for the past decade, only changing a few things inside the area at the request of the other vampires.

He didn't care either way, he hardly spent any time in the room, it's appearance was of no matter to him.

"When are you leaving?" Caius asked. He was lying on Edward's bed, staring up at the ceiling. The bed was there only because Caius had liked the color scheme, and the usual pattern was that what Caius liked, Caius got. He had given it to Edward as a present on the 50th year from his turning and had spent more time on it than Edward ever had.

"I don't know," Edward said, laying down next to him.

"Hmm," Caius murmured unintelligibly. "So you're really leaving."

"Yes, I am." They laid down in a comfortable silence for a while longer, Caius' hand finding its way into Edward's, finger tracing a pattern on the skin of his palm. Edward let the action continue; Caius wouldn't take it any further, he knew from experience.

"You know," Caius broke the silence suddenly. "If you are going to Carlisle, you are going to have to act like one of them."

"A human," Edward specified.

Caius nodded. "Human," he said reluctantly, unable to completely hide his wince. "Why would you want to do that to yourself?"

"Same reason as Carlisle," Edward said.

Caius snorted. "I never understood Carlisle's reasons. Honestly, a doctor, of all the professions in the world he had to become a doctor," he spat the words with barely concealed disgust.

"He enjoys it, as you enjoy your own," Edward forced himself not to pause before continuing to say, "profession." If being a leader of the Volturi could be considered one, especially with Caius' inclinations.

Caius ignored the comment. "Why do you think he forces Jasper to live with those horrid creatures? I can only imagine his suffering."

Edward frowned. He did not understand everyone's fascination with Jasper. "Jasper will be fine, he just needs to time to- become accustomed to it all," he said sharply. He had liked the blond boy, during the few times he had seen him. He had an impressive ability, making it all the more difficult for him to live where he did and how he did.

"I bet," Caius said, not in the least believing his words.

"What does your ability say?" Edward asked.

Caius laughed, although without any real humor. It was a running joke between them –Edward did not know Caius' ability, but the man's instincts had never proved him wrong, so he called it his ability. "It says that Jasper shall fall victim to the Hunger soon."

Edward tugged on one of Caius' fingers. "Don't be cruel," he chided.

Caius grinned. "But he will, Edward, I can sense it. Do you not trust my ability to see?"

"I trust your ability as far as I can throw Jane," Edward said, rolling his eyes.

"Which is quite long, really," Caius said pointedly.

"Speaking of whom, she'll be glad that I'm gone," Edward gave a small half-smile.

He sensed Caius' frown. "She would not dare show her displeasure," he half-growled. Then he sneered. "Aro would want her to be punished, severely."

"You need not sound so happy about it," Edward said, although there wasn't any resentment in his voice, he was used to Caius and his ways. Sometimes he felt a spark of worry about his apathy with all things related to Caius, at some point he would have been upset, felt disgusted and horrified with the other man's behavior. Now, there was only the calm acceptance of someone who had watched too many deaths at the hands of one man.

"I haven't had a play date in a long time," Caius complained. "Aro has been so," his nose scrounged up at the thought of their leader, "strict lately. It's not fun anymore." He paused. "Maybe I should join you on your trip, there has to be at least one human whose life is insignificant-"

"Caius," Edward said warningly.

Caius laughed. "I would think that you would recognize a jest when you heard one, after spending years with me. Do you not?"

"No, I don't," he said honestly.

"Of course you do, you can read my mind, or have you lost your ability?" Caius countered.

Edward winced. "It is not that simple," he said, a common argument between him and the other vampires in the Volturi. "I mean, if we don't call Aro's ability 'reading minds by touching someone' or something equally inane, how is it that I am forced to live with the ability 'reading minds'." Caius did not say anything, they had had this conversation far too many times, and they both knew that his ability wouldn't get another name anytime soon. He sighed, before nodding. "I can, but do you want me to?"

The Volturi, regardless of their habits and their food choices, had taught him how to control his ability, more so than Carlisle ever could have alone. The thoughts of everyone at the Volterra were now a mere buzz in his consciousness, and unless he focused, he couldn't decipher their thoughts into anything legible.

Caius paused, and then nodded slowly. "If you wish to, you can try."

Edward only had to focus slightly before the Caius' mind hit him. It wasn't particularly coherent, but Caius' thoughts almost never were, his mind worked too quickly, spanning over too many topics at once. Flashes of images, along with a constant stream of words.

_Aro smiling at Jane, Jane with a knife hanging over her body, screams and pleas for help, Edward leaving without looking back, Edward in a monotonous field of buildings, Caius standing next to him, a human girl being bitten, blood, blood _everywhere_, "You really shouldn't have left, Edward," said by a soft voice-_

Edward pulled back, shaking his head slightly. Caius' mind was stronger than most, louder to the point of being almost deafening, thoughts flickering from one topic to the next with a speed he had only seen in certain vampires and female teenagers.

"You're definitely not coming," he said dryly.

Caius grinned at him shamelessly. "Only if you ask nicely," he said, voice low and tongue flickering out to wet his lips. He had used that exact same tone and action to seduce half the men and women who visited, the effect had been lost on Edward a while back.

"That hasn't worked on me in over forty years, Caius," Edward said, shaking his head slightly.

"And yet you blush," Caius drawled, leaning on his forearms to look at him.

"We're vampires, it's physically impossible for us to blush, Caius," Edward said.

"If you could, you would," Caius said, moving to look over him.

He kept silent, because Caius was right, even now he would be blushing. The only sign, though, were the tip of his cheeks becoming a shade paler, hardly recognizable given his already pale skin. Caius smiled, and Edward knew that his sharper than average eyes had noticed the change in color.

"Thought so," Caius murmured.

Edward pressed back into the mattress, to put more of a distance between him and the other man. Caius laughed at the barely noticeable action, before moving away and lying back on the mattress again. Edward relaxed at that, unsure why he had even felt uncomfortable in the first place.

"Sometimes," Caius said thoughtfully, "I forget sometimes that you are but a child."

Edward frowned. "I'm not a child."

"You are by vampire's standards," Caius retorted.

Edward resisted the urge to snap childishly _'Am not'_, but Caius smiled anyway, as though knowing what he wanted to say. That instinctual ability of his again. "I'm going to go," Edward changed the topic.

"I know," Caius said, and there wasn't anything else to say about the topic.

Then, he asked, "Do you think Marcus will mind?"

Caius grinned. "Edward, Marcus cares as much about you as I do my next prey."

Edward laughed.

-|-

"You did not really think we would be letting you leave without a proper farewell, did you, Edward?"

Aro's tone was sarcastic, but the intention sincere. Edward knew that Aro did not care for him –liked him as a friend, perhaps, but more importantly, wanted his gift. Edward looked at the man steadily before flickering his glance over to the two who stood on either side of him.

He almost rolled his eyes at the pose they gave; their theatrics were one thing all of them had in common.

Caius grinned at him, fingers tapping his sides in a fidgety manner and his muscles tensing and relaxing under his clothes –he could hear the shift in cloth. Edward took in the actions, and then the color of his eyes, just slightly more vibrant a red than usual, breathed in the scent of blood, and understood. He had just fed; he needed to spend the energy. "Good bye," he said.

Marcus kept silent, mouth flickering up in a barely detectable smile before falling again.

Edward worked on instinct and let himself into Marcus' mind.

_A network of connections, as though a map of people had been created, each interlocked with others with colored lines. Edward. "His loyalty is wavering." Aro. "Leave him be." A beautiful, smiling woman with black hair and kind, if red, eyes –Didyme as always, laughing at something. Caius' maniacal grin. "Let him go to Carlisle; it would be useful to have friends in the Olympic Coven." Aro again, thoughtful this time_-

He pulled himself out, shutting out the man, face impassive. Marcus would not even have felt the intrusion. Aro was looking at him expectantly and he shrugged.

"You don't have to," he said softly.

Aro laughed. "Of course we do, you are part of the Volturi, Edward, and your leaving is a sad occasion, even if it is only for a while."

Edward smiled at the man, nodding understandingly. "Of course."

"In fact," Aro continued, "I will be taking it upon myself to accompany you to the Cullen household itself."

Edward frowned. "I'm not sure if that's the best idea."

"But I insist," Aro said. "It will be nice to see Carlisle and the rest of the family after such a long time. Caius will be accompanying-"

"I won't do anything, Edward," Caius said cheerfully, and Edward didn't doubt him.

"As will Renata and Felix," Aro said, waving a hand in the air, and at the sound of the names, the two figures appeared in the room. Renata immediately attached herself to Aro, almost hidden by his larger build. She looked up at him, smiling faintly before ducking her head again, as though nervous of being caught. He smiled back; she was a nice girl, if a little… obsessed.

"See you, Ed," Felix said, and Edward's smile widened. Felix was not one for talk, but he was friendly enough, as enthusiastic as Caius about his meals, if not as cruel with his methods. The nickname wasn't one that Edward was fond of, but Felix was the only person who used it –Caius as well, if he wanted to annoy Edward—so he did not mind.

Another figure entered, at a slower pace.

Jane.

His jaw clenched. The animosity between the two of them was no secret to the members of the Volturi. Aro looked at her questioningly and she bowed her head slightly, moving to the other side of him, glaring at Renata. _Mine._ The word sounded in her mind so loudly Edward took a step back from the force of it, turning to pick up his bags as he shook his head subtly to clear it of her.

When he turned back, Marcus had disappeared. Aro was frowning, displeased.

"You don't all have to come," Edward said before Aro could start.

Aro looked almost startled. "Of course we do." He cast a glance at Felix, who had Edward's bag in his hand in the next second. Then his brow rose slightly. "Is that all you're bringing?" he asked, gesturing to the slim suitcase. Edward shrugged, and then nodded.

"I'm quite sure that Alice will want to bring me shopping," he said, a perfectly plausible reason, knowing Alice. "I could use help for that?" he asked hopefully.

Caius chuckled. "Never come between a woman and her shopping," he said wisely.

Edward felt the inane urge to pout. Caius' eyes lit up in amusement, and Edward knew that the man knew exactly what he had wanted to do. "Are you sure you don't have Alice's gift?" he asked. Caius waggled his brows, and Edward moved to stand next to him and Aro.

"We should be quick," Aro said.

Edward nodded and made to step forward when a forceful thought stopped him. "Wait." Jane's voice was as commanding in his head as it was in everyday life. Edward gritted his teeth, but nodded such that only one looking for it would be able to notice it.

He turned to Jane. "I'd like to speak to you," Edward requested formally.

Aro was before him the next moment, his stance defensive although Edward thought that between him and Jane, it was probably he who needed protecting, even if he would be able to anticipate the young girl's actions. "Why?" Aro asked, voice low and careful.

"There are things we must discuss," Jane said from behind him, but Aro ignored her. He continued staring at Edward –who met his gaze unflinchingly—before nodding slowly.

"Very well, we shall wait by the jet," Aro instructed, and both Edward and Jane each let out a soft 'yes'.

They were gone, leaving Jane and Edward in the room.

Edward looked down at the girl expectantly.

"You must not leave," Jane said.

Edward was surprised. "Why?"

Her mind raced with images and thoughts, too many, too fast, he couldn't decipher them, but he understood enough.

_"Aro wants you here." Aro smiling at Edward. Edward using his gift at a meeting. "He will be upset without your gift in the Volturi." Aro touching Jane. Jane snarling at Edward. Aro hovering over Edward, almost touching. Jane and Aro together, definitely touching_-

Edward pulled away, wondering if it would be polite to mime throwing up. He was reminded of exactly why he had learned to block minds.

Jane crossed her arms, and Alec appeared at the doorway, eyes watchful and on Edward.

"He wants you," she said blankly.

Edward shook his head. "What Aro wants is for him to decide, he will not affect the decisions that I make. He knows that." And Aro did, Edward had told him, when he had first joined, and while he doubted that Aro would take his words to heart, he knew that Carlisle would help him if anything went wrong.

"You will upset him," Jane said, angrier now. Alec tensed. Edward felt more afraid of the boy than his sister, Jane he could predict, Alec not so much. He looked between them.

"Aro will not like you coming between us," he said blandly.

Jane's mouth twisted into something ugly. "Aro is-"

"Waiting for you," Alec finished, moving next to his sister and laying a hand on her shoulder. She calmed slightly under the touch, although her eyes were no less filled with hate. For whom he had no doubt. He wondered if it had been wise to send everyone away; Felix would be useful if Jane insisted on using her ability on him now. Not that she would dare, Aro's punishment would be decided by Caius, it would be harsh.

"Go," Jane spat, and Edward turned and sprinted.

Aro was waiting for him in the jet, black, Victorian clothes looking strange but not completely out of place in the leather seats and televisions that were placed around the jet. Caius was near the window, tapping at the window with one fingernail, gently, so that it would not break. Felix was flirting with the air stewardess, a human girl who looked thoroughly excited at being near vampires –as all humans were, until they were killed, that was. They would wait until returning to Volterra before killing her. He almost missed Renata, sitting next to Aro, his hand patting her head.

"Where's Jane?" Caius asked knowingly.

Edward shot him an annoyed look before taking a seat opposite him. He didn't bother with the belt –airplane crashes would not kill him. Caius smirked. He turned to Aro. "You should not taunt her," he said.

Aro smiled, shrugging slightly as he continued playing with Renata's hair. "She allows herself to be baited so easily, it is her fault, not mine."

Aro, as he often was, was right. "Still," Edward pressed the issue. "It's not easy dealing with a jealous teenage girl."

Caius tittered in laughter. Aro looked as amused. "She must learn not to let her emotions overcome her senses that easily. Alec is far more proficient at that," Aro mused and Edward let himself a glimpse of Aro's mind.

_Jane and Alec. "Pain." Alec alone, smiling at Aro. "Senses." Alec in a pair of pants, standing before Aro while Jane kneeled next to him. "What an interesting pair." Alec, naked, in the middle of Aro's room, eyes wide and trusting. Jane on the bed, Aro's bed, naked as well, flesh pale. Aro walking towards one of them_-

"They're only children, Aro," Edward said, flinching away from the thoughts.

Aro shrugged. "They are old, only their bodies are those of children. They want to take part in activities like the adults that they are. Who am I to deny them that?"

"Apparently, a pedophiliac," Caius joked. He knew about the relationship. Experienced it.

_Jane and Alec. Aro whispering something into Jane's ear. "You keep him happy." Aro shutting the door behind him. Jane removing the thin cloak that was the only piece of clothing to cover her. Alec slower, carefully taking off each article of clothing and folding it before placing it at a corner. "Come here, boy." Alec walking closer but hesitating half way, eyes a dark red, blackness creeping in at the edges. "You want your food? Come here, boy." Alec being nudged forward by Jane_-

Edward did not hide the disgust that he felt. "Both of you, apparently."

"Reading our minds, Edward?" Caius tutted. "Not reading, I apologize, you are delving into our minds and gaining the information through a series of images and words, correct?" Caius shook his head. "You need to act your age, sometimes, Edward. After all, you've been seventeen for over a hundred years now, and not in a single one of them did you actually act seventeen."

Edward glowered at Caius. "Since you are so keen of acting that age, I'll have to do your job."

Aro laughed unhelpfully.

"No need to be harsh, Edward," Caius clucked his tongue. "I'm just looking out for your well-being," he said, faking sincerity. Edward saw right through it, as did Aro.

"He's right, though," Aro said. "You need not be so grown up all the time." Caius leaned over and ruffled his hair to emphasize the fact. Edward pulled away automatically, careful not to break the seat with too much force as his back hit it.

"I simply do not understand why you refuse to let me touch that mop on your head," Caius said, giving his hair a dirty look.

"It is not a mop," Edward said, voice pitching too close to a squawk for his comfort as Caius' hand reached out again, running cold fingers through his hair, tugging briefly before pulling back. "It's fine."

"Oh?" Aro questioned. "I think it could use a comb. Why don't you visit that nice place that Alec visited for his hair cut? It was a mess when he first came, matted and wet and disgustingly long. He looks far better now," Aro said appreciatively.

All of the lingering humor in the situation was lost at the mention of the boy. For he _was_ a boy.

Aro saw the repulsion in his face –not towards Aro, but rather his actions and the whole set of circumstances the twins had to live with—and shook his head. "You should not think of them as children, or you underestimate them."

"That will never happen, of that you can be sure," Edward said dryly.

"I treat them both as adults, they appreciate that and they pay me back in due," Aro said. "The boy especially, Alec. His sister is willing, but she tires more easily. Alec has more stamina, he is sharper." Aro thought about the topic. "But Jane, she has the will that is necessary, much like you Caius," he gestured at the white-haired man. "She is far more," he considered the words before settling for, "creative than her twin."

Caius leaned back on the seat, moving it lower. "The boy has potential."

"They both do," Aro agreed.

"Does it bother nobody here but me that they have the appearance of children?" Edward asked rhetorically.

Caius answered it anyway. "Yes. Don't worry, Edward, a few more centuries on you and I promise that you'll hardly take notice of appearances either. You never know, you could mate with a child," he added teasingly. Edward's lips turned down in a scowl. Caius noticed. "You don't appreciate my jokes, Edward? Pity."

Aro covered his laugh with a fake cough. "He is right, though, Edward. One's appearance should not matter in the least."

"Hypocrite," Edward accused lightly. No matter who it was, the one thing in common with all of Aro's bed partners was their beauty. "I've never seen you bring to your room someone who couldn't decorate the cover of one those magazines that Heidi reads."

"Heidi," Aro said, elongating the syllables of the name. "Now there you have a real woman; gorgeous."

"Agreed," Caius said, his word slow.

Edward scowled. "I would appreciate your not treating my friend as an object."

Aro laughed. "Of course, of course, we would not dare. We shall not speak of the ladies again," Aro said, miming the zipping of his mouth with two fingers pressed together.

"We could speak about the men," Caius suggested lasciviously.

"So one's gender does not matter either, then?" Edward asked curiously.

Caius' brow lifted at the question. "Have you by any chance seen the people Aro has laid with in recent years? They do not waver towards either gender. Aro is unable to decide which the fairer sex is."

Aro did not look insulted with the comment. On the contrary, he looked almost pleased. Edward felt a childish want for his Mother, for Esme, who provided some protective shield from all the evil in the world; from Caius and Aro. "Both females and males have their attributes, and I am able to recognize it." Edward had a question on his tongue, about why Aro wasn't acting as old-fashioned as he did in other matters. Aro answered it before he could ask, though. "I've lived a long time, Edward. Human ideals do not limit me, I am both beyond and above them."

"I would have thought you to be-" Edward stopped. "Well, against such things."

"Humans are narrow minded," Aro said sharply.

"And you take it upon yourself not to be like them," Edward presumed.

Aro nodded. "They are fools. I am not."

Edward smiled at the statement; it was so _Aro_.

"Sulpicia?" he asked Aro, since the man's wife had to be aware of his activities.

Aro gave a one armed shrug. "She does not concern herself with who I sleep with. I return to her at the end of the day, that is all that matters, is it not?"

"But once you've found a-" he stopped, because he didn't know if Sulpicia was Aro's mate, only that she was his wife.

"Exactly," Aro said, predicting what he had been about to say. "I've touched you, Edward," he halted briefly, processing Edward's expression in smug glee as Edward's mind went through the different stages of touching, "and I know what Carlisle has said about mating. It is the most powerful force in the world, some say, rivaled only by the Imprinting that shape shifters undergo."

Caius' face darkened at the mention of the creatures. Edward knew of his hatred towards werewolves, but he had not sensed –or read—any resentment towards the other creatures.

"They are not werewolves," he said, questioning Caius.

Caius did not answer.

"They only take the form of wolves," Aro added.

Caius looked annoyed. "I'm not particularly against them."

"But you're not for them either?" Edward guessed, correctly, it seemed, as Caius nodded.

"Why anyone would choose to smell like a mutt is beyond me," Caius said, grimacing at the mere thought. "Disgusting."

"You've met one, then?" Edward asked curiously.

"Carlisle lives near the creatures," Aro informed him. Edward was surprised, he hadn't known. Carlisle had never thought of these shape shifters when with him; he didn't know whether to be pleased or annoyed. "Which is part of the reason we do not visit him too often, I'm not fond of smelling like a dog. Nasty thing."

Caius nodded in agreement. "There is an agreement between these La Push shape shifters and the Olympic clan, Carlisle mentioned once, I think. It was quite a while ago. He has pretended to be a human in Forks thrice now, I believe, and the Quilete tribe has always lived in La Push. He has an agreement with them," Caius snorted. "As though wolves," at Edward's glance, he amended his words, "Or men who take the form of wolves, would keep their word."

Edward smiled faintly. "They probably think the same of vampires," he countered without any heat. Caius and him often had these discussions –heated sometimes, more often not—about what humans thought of vampires. Or, in this case, shape shifters. "How do you know about them, though?" he frowned.

"Edward, Edward, Edward," Aro shook his head slowly, sadly. "Even if Carlisle insists on not being in our presence, we always watch over our friends." Friends was not the word Edward would have used, but he did not argue. "The wolves are not as discreet as one would imagine; they think that they are safe, protected from curious eyes. They are not."

"Can they not smell us?" Edward asked, curious more than anything.

"Of course, as we do them. I sent Demetri to watch them a few hundred years ago, the second time Carlisle chose the area." Aro's lips pursed. "They scented him after a few weeks, but only near the border, so they could not attack him."

"Since they know about the existence of vampires-"

"Cold Ones is what they use to refer to us, I think," Aro interrupted, an amused smile lighting his face. His fingers were wrapped in strands of Renata's hair, pulling at it in a tight grip that was bound to be painful if Renata had been a human. "Strange, I wonder if we should call them the Hot Ones."

"They're hot?" Edward asked, before mentally wincing at how the question was phrased.

"Well, I have heard that the men are fairly good-looking," Caius said casually, although he was grinning at Edward's embarrassment. "They are hot, though. Carlisle estimates their temperatures to be steady over a hundred. Imagine that, Edward, we might actually feel the heat for a change."

Edward laughed. Vampires did not feel the heat that humans gave off, instead, their own low temperatures made humans feel colder. Warmth was not something he had felt in a long while. "It would be interesting to touch one of them," he admitted.

"If only," Aro said. "The shape shifters of La Push, according to Carlisle, detest the Cold Ones. We would be fortunate if they allowed us on their lands, much less allowed us to touch them."

"Not that we would need their permission," Caius was quick to add.

"It would be nice, one in a while, though," Edward pointed out. Caius opened his mouth, as though to argue, before shrugging. Far from an agreement –since Caius enjoyed not having permission—but even Caius could admit that a willing body could, sometimes, give as much pleasure as an unwilling one.

"Perhaps," he compromised.

Aro looked at Caius disbelievingly. "A shape shifter's permission?"

"I wasn't speaking of just shape shifters," Edward said.

"But a shape shifter's permission?" Aro asked.

It gave both him and Caius pause. "It would be nice to have the permission of a shape shifter to touch them," Edward said reluctantly. It did not matter whether or not he liked them. Caius' mind was offering enough opinions to change his own.

_A group of wolves, larger than normal wolves, eerily calm. Another pack of wolves, werewolves this time, though, he recognized the difference in size, attacking Caius. The first pack of wolves again. Carlisle's face. Carlisle's thoughts. "Fascinating creatures." Caius' indifference. "Disgusting." Hatred, even. The second pack of wolves again, their blood, this time. Aro carrying Caius away. More blood. The first pack. Clean fur. "Stay away." Humans now, in that same formation. A man stepping forward, brown body naked. The pack leader_-

He looked at Caius, while he had known about the man's confrontation with werewolves, he was beginning to understand Caius' hatred of them. Much like Rosalie's hatred of drunks, after what had happened to her with her fiancé.

Edward didn't know if he should be understanding either hatred, though, for hatred was hatred, no matter who it was directed at.

"They would be warm to the touch," Caius said, eyes closed as though imagining the situation. "He probably wouldn't want you to touch him, though."

"He?" Edward questioned, wondering if it was a matter of preference.

"The Quilete tribe shape shifters are all male," Aro informed him. "Or they were two hundred years ago, females could have evolved since then, but I have heard that such cases are extremely rare. Next to no cases of female wolves, the majority are male."

"Then how do they," he would not stutter, "have kids with the gene?"

Caius' face expressed amusement. "Surely you know how people have kids, Edward? Carlisle must have shown you first hand, I hope."

"Of course not," Edward said immediately, allowing some of his horror to creep into his voice.

"Really?" Aro looked at him with raised brows, surprised. The last time he had touched Carlisle was a long while ago, and his gloved hands ensured that he wouldn't touch Edward accidentally –it was a courtesy for the members of the Volturi.

"No," Edward repeated. He was thankful for the fact that nobody here had his gift; they might not be able to see his embarrassment –except for Caius; Caius knew him too well—but they would have been able to read it all too clearly in his thoughts.

"Why Edward, from the colour of your face, one would assume that you were a virgin," Caius said knowingly.

Edward glared at him.

"Really, Edward? I would have thought that you would have taken care of that pesky problem a long while back," Aro said, as though his not having sex was somehow a bad thing. "I mean, the last time I touched you was," he paused, and then shook his head. "A long time ago. You really should have found somebody by now."

"Mates aren't exactly that easily to find," Edward snapped.

Caius laughed, coming out loud and unexpected. Aro only smiled slightly. "We did not meet a mate, Edward," Caius said. "Although, I am sure that I can find someone who would be willing, and, even if they are not, it does not matter, does it?" Caius shrugged, and then looked at Edward's frown, and shrugged again. "Or perhaps it does to you, although I do not claim to even begin understanding your reasoning."

Edward calmed at the words –Caius had that effect on him, although it had the opposite on most others. "I will find my mate, and then I shall be ready," he said confidently.

He didn't think it would be possible for Aro to look more amused, but he did.

Edward stalwartly ignored them for the remainder of the trip.

-|-

**Also found here:**

**ansera. livejournal. com/33942. html**


	2. Chapter 2

The air in the forest was still and quiet, with the people who lived in Forks far away enough for the noises they made to become white noise in the background. The creatures that lived in the forest itself were few and far, as if they knew not to near the area where Carlisle and his family lived. Not that anyone in the family would feed from an animal so close to a human's area –it was too dangerous. If they wanted to feed, it would be done at someplace else, away from prying eyes of meddlesome humans.

They were all breathing. It was the only thing that occurred to Edward at that moment. All of the vampires there, in the clearing of the forest that Carlisle had pointed out as a place for them to meet without encountering too many interruptions or the like, were breathing.

_How very human._

"Edward," Carlisle was the first to step forward, hands surrounding him a hug that made Edward slump slightly in relief. It wasn't that he had seriously doubted that Carlisle would still accept him –even if he had chosen to stay with the Volturi—but the thought had lingered, somewhat uncomfortable in his mind and pulling at his gut. "It's good to see you again," Carlisle murmured, cheek pressing against Edward's hair.

Edward's grip tightened around the older man's body before he pulled away.

"How sweet," the almost taunt came from Aro. Edward turned to glance warily at the man, warning him not to say anything that could cause more tension.

"Aro," Carlisle greeted, not friendly, but not unfriendly either.

Aro smiled and stepped forward, Renata hovering next to him, her eyes bright and carefully remaining on Carlisle's figure. Caius was slower, followed by Felix, although between the two figures–one large and hulking, the other graceful and lean in comparison—there was no doubt that Caius was the more dangerous. "Carlisle, it has been too long," Aro said, holding out his arms before him extravagantly before tilting his head forward.

The rest of the family was there as well, seeming more cautious than Carlisle looked to be –although Edward didn't think he would show his fear either way—and standing in a protective line.

Aro turned towards the person closest to Carlisle, both literally and figuratively. "Esme," the name was stretched, smooth on Aro's tongue, and while Esme did not visibly recoil, her mind was loud with anger and disgust.

_"Carlisle shouldn't have allowed him to come."_ The words gave Edward pause, a melancholy feeling spreading through him, but Esme's thoughts continued. _"Edward should have come alone; he would be safer without them."_ He smiled at Esme, who smiled back –knowing that he had been going through her thoughts but not taking offense at it. _"I hope that you are feeling well, Edward."_ The final thought was aimed directly at him, and he stepped forward and hugged his 'mother'.

"I'm fine," he whispered, too low for anyone else –human or vampire—to hear. Esme's hands were delicate around him, her scent a soft calming presence, and he breathed in deep before pulling back.

Aro had turned to the female he had had his mind on –Edward knew, Aro was always provocatively loud when thinking about people he could possibly be with, probably to annoy him—and his calm smile was at odds with the blatantly erotic images that Edward unwillingly saw, they were too loud for him to possibly ignore.

"Rosalie," he held out a gloved hand and Rosalie did not hesitate before placing her own in it, "As beautiful as ever." Aro bent down and placed a light kiss on her knuckles, Rosalie's face unreadable throughout.

_"Fuck you, Aro. And, Edward, I know that you're listening, you rude bastard, you had better appreciate what I'm doing here. What we're all doing here, actually."_

Edward grinned at her, and Rosalie rolled her eyes at him over Aro's bent figure before pulling her hand away. Aro straightened and his eyes glanced over Emmett –who was beaming at him, his thoughts mainly centered around-

_"Someone to play with, finally, I wonder if Aro will let Edward stay a while longer."_

Emmett's mind was always a relief to Edward –his thoughts were never as loud as his speech, soft and encouraging and friendly most of the time, different from the thoughts of most of the members of the Volturi. The large man wasn't childish, Edward knew, for all he behaved, but he was more child-like than any other vampire Edward had faced.

"Emmett," Aro's greeting was not one that he said out of actual want. He would have liked Emmett in the Volturi, to act as another Felix in some sense, but he knew better than to even attempt to recruit one of Carlisle's coven. They would never join the Volturi.

Only Edward had.

"Alice, Jasper," Aro said to the couple who were standing together at the end, their hands clasped together. Edward felt a pang of guilt, then, for not trying harder to stop Caius from coming, since the greed and lust and bloodlust that emitted off the man was obviously affecting Jasper, even if he was smart enough not to show it.

"Aro," Alice greeted. Jasper kept silent.

Edward felt the tension increase; it was almost palpable.

"Have you considered your other options, I wonder," Caius drawled, "or has Carlisle been keeping them from you?"

Carlisle's gaze narrowed on Caius –the two had never been able to completely get rid of the hostility between them—and Aro and Esme shared a look of something like kinsmanship before they moved towards Caius and Carlisle respectively. Esme laid a hand on Carlisle's shoulder, comforting him through the compassion that she radiated. Aro was less kind, glaring at Caius, cold and harsh, until the man took a step back.

"I know my options, all of them," Alice answered, as though the silent confrontation had not occurred. "I choose to stay with Jasper, here with the Olympic Coven."

Aro looked slightly disappointed, even though he had surely predicted the decision. "If you change your mind, you know that you may call on me," Aro left the invitation open. If he could have, he would have had Chelsea change Alice's loyalties, but the mating bond couldn't be broken, they all knew that. Alice nodded, and Aro turned back to Carlisle. "Carlisle my friend, have you yet to change those habits of yours?"

Carlisle looked uncomfortable with the question. "I am still a doctor, if that's what you're asking."

"You still resist the Hunger," Caius sounded not exactly bored, but definitely not interested with Carlisle's actions. He considered them foolish, and he did not need to look into such actions; he did not care for them.

"Yes," Carlisle said, the tiniest note of defiance entering his voice. Esme moved closer on instinct, as though her very presence would have the ability of calming him. Since the effects of mating were never completely known, it was possible that it did, or perhaps that was simply a part of Esme's ability of compassion. She sent a glance towards Jasper, who closed his eyes, and a moment later Edward felt himself relax –a wave of calm passing over everyone in the clearing.

"Hm," Aro hummed carelessly. "It must be getting more difficult as we speak."

_"It is not possible for it to get more difficult."_ Edward could not imagine what Carlisle had suffered during his first few years, but Edward had lived –he knew it, he was fortunate for it—a sheltered life both with Carlisle and the Volturi, and he had never felt those same urges. "I manage," Carlisle said outwardly.

"Indeed, you do," Aro smiled. "It is quite," he paused while finding an appropriate word, "astounding."

"Thank you." Carlisle's reply was edged with sarcasm that Edward knew only he –and perhaps Esme—would hear, because the thoughts Carlisle was thinking were parallel to his voice, until the two became one to Edward. Esme would know, because even without his gift, she knew her mate, an irrefutable fact.

"Astounding, all of you, actually," Aro expanded to include the entire congregation. Rosalie did not look particularly impressed with the compliment, and Emmett shook it off –people said such things sometimes, other vampires who found their means of survival more fascinating than doable—although Alice gave a small smile.

Jasper flinched away from it, the closest to breaking the ultimate rule of being part of the Olympic Coven. Edward wished, for a second, that he had Jasper's ability of sending peace towards others, since the blonde vampire could not send it to himself.

"I would rather die, although it is impossible considering who we are," Caius commented.

Edward glared at him. Caius ignored him.

"Are you not going to invite us in, my old friend?" Aro directed the question to Carlisle.

_"Esme will kill me."_ Edward hid his laugh at Carlisle's slightly frightened thought; although he was doing a poor job of it if Carlisle's displeased expression was any indication. "We would be delighted," Carlisle said formally. It was strange, to see the change in the man, so relaxed and inviting around his family but so cold and formal with the Volturi's presence.

Esme smiled –it looked as welcoming as ever—but her thoughts were nearer to the opposite; she was uncomfortable, she would rather not have the men there. If the choice had been given to her, they would not even be close to their living areas, it was too dangerous.

"Actually, Aro," Edward stepped in. "You should be returning to the Volterra. Jane requires your presence, she mentioned it to me in our earlier- conversation."

If Aro heard the lie in his voice, he did not mention in. "Of course," he agreed. "We have matters to attend to."

_"Tell Carlisle that we will visit again once again when the others of the Coven are absent, and that he is always welcome at the Volturi."_ Aro sounded let down in his mind, as though he too had been through the thoughts of Carlisle and was upset by what he had heard.

"We shall see you again soon," Caius did not smile. He knew that Aro was not happy, and it affected him as well.

Edward stepped forward, and Aro, in an action that both did and didn't surprise him—hugged him. The man was completely covered, so there wasn't any way for Aro to delve into his mind. Yet, Aro said, "Tell Esme that I forgive her." Edward nodded imperceptibly, breathing in the scent of Aro –blood was the most obvious scent, since he only just fed, with dust lingering over it, not unusual considering the age of the buildings at the Volterra, and something else that he could point out only as Aro.

He pulled back and smiled softly at Aro. "I shall return," he promised, although a voice in his mind –not one that belonged to someone else, something that had always been there, something he would name as a conscience if not for a fact that vampires shouldn't have them—said that he was lying.

Aro smiled. "I expect you to," he said, and Edward heard the order in his words.

"As do I," Caius added, and although he showed no physical affection, there was a warmth in his smile that Edward could take for fondness, or as fond as a person as Caius could be, either way. _"You may give in to your Hunger, here; the humans' scent has quite the lure."_

Edward shook his head at the thoughts of Caius, not that they were particularly unexpected, but because they were expected, and Caius always delivered. "I shall not," he responded, and Caius sent an image in return: Caius himself, pouting in a manner that he recognized from all of two occasions in the decade they had been together.

"You are –what is the word that you young people use, these days?" Caius looked towards Alice and Jasper, who looked back at him in confusion. They hadn't heard the unsaid parts of the conversation, of course, and Edward grinned at their lack of understanding. "Ah, yes, a killjoy, a mood killer, a spoil sport, correct?" Caius asked.

Emmet laughed. "Man, they're all right for Ed, the little boy here needs to learn to lighten up."

Edward scowled. "I am not a killjoy, or a mood killer, or a spoil sport."

"You are," Rosalie snapped, crossing her arms across her chest. "Of course, these people keep insisting on having too much fun, so I don't exactly blame you either." She stared at Emmett pointedly and then shifted her gaze to Alice. Jasper took a step forward, situating himself between Alice and Rosalie automatically.

Alice only shook her head. "Don't worry, Edward, you're not a completely killjoy. I mean, you don't stop other people from having fun, but you don't have fun either."

"I have fun," Edward argued. "I play the piano, which is an extremely interesting, not to mention a-"

"Boring art, Edward," Caius pronounced slowly. "You need to learn to do things that people of your own age do. Perhaps this trip to your family," he paused before continuing, "will do you some good. You could play some games that the youth of this day and age do, what is it that you play?" The question was directed at the four 'children' there.

Rosalie smirked. "Strip poker."

"Rosalie," Esme said sharply, shaking her head when Rosalie only rolled her eyes and looked at Caius defiantly.

"We should play baseball sometime, man, when there's a storm," Emmett suggested energetically, practically rocking on the heels of his feet with the excess energy in his large frame. "Alice still has your uniform."

"Uniform?" Aro asked, a brow raised. Renata looked up, mouthing the word as well in uncertainty. Alice smiled brightly at Renata, who inched closer to Aro at the force of it before returning the smile, albeit more shyly.

"We have uniforms for everyone, even Carlisle," Alice said for clarification. "It gets you into the mood of the game more," she nodded, the expression on her face –almost serious about the game and its accompanying fashion—looking strangely out of place.

"Indeed," Caius nudged Edward's shoulder. "There you have it, Edward, a fine example of a game for all of you children to play." The obvious retort of 'I'm not a child' was on his tongue, but it was too similar to what a four year old would say while having a tantrum. _"You are quite childish."_ Caius' thought, in Edward's opinion, was unnecessary, completely so.

"If I told you to shut up, would you consider it rude?" Edward asked, shifting away far enough such that the cold that Caius permeated did not affect him.

"Quite," Caius said, amused.

"Well, teenagers are supposed to be rude, are they not?" he asked snidely.

Caius only laughed. Carlisle, though, frowned. "Even if Caius does not take offense, Edward, I ask you not to use such language with your- elders." The admonition did not sound as if Carlisle really meant it, more like he had to say it to fulfill his duty of being a Father.

"We go to school as well, of course," Alice added after a moment's pause –before it got too uncomfortable—as though she had completely forgotten how she spent most of her days.

"Oh yes, it completely slipped my mind," Caius said in a tone that Edward knew meant it had not slipped his mind, but he had rather chosen to forget the quaint fact.

"How is this school," Aro used the word awkwardly, since he had probably never attended, and even if he had, he obviously did not care much for the idea, "system supposed to work?" he asked doubtfully.

Carlisle tensed, taking offense. "It works fine," he did not snap, but he was nearing it. Jasper moved closer to Carlisle, the calm exuding off him even as he walked.

"How exactly?" Caius asked, eyes narrowing on Carlisle. "After all, if Edward is to attend this tertiary institution, the least you could, Carlisle, is to explain how this is supposed to work, just in case. I do not believe that either of us would want the Volturi to have to visit any member of your family because of your desire to act more," he sneered, "human."

_"If Caius thinks that he can get away with threatening anyone in our family-"_ Not coven, family, as it had always been and probably always would be. Edward walked swiftly towards Caius, a hand on Caius' shoulder pulling him away –any added distance between the two opposing vampires could only be helpful.

"Caius," Edward snapped. "You know better than to threaten a vampire's mate." The term family would not dissuade Caius; mating, though, he understood.

Caius did not respond, although the glint in his eyes told Edward that he was more than a little pleased with his actions and the respond that they got.

"We are all simply concerned for Edward's safety," Aro said, his voice soothing, and Carlisle calmed instantly.

Esme stepped forward, minimizing interaction between Carlisle and Caius. "They are all properly registered to the school, the administration has the proper papers for Edward as well, prepared for us to finalize when he first attends the school on Monday." It was Saturday, and Edward felt the overwhelming desire to groan, school only became more boring throughout the years –he had no need to study subjects that he knew better than any teacher did; no need to study history that he had lived through.

"Edward will be in most of our classes," Alice stepped up, one of the more levelheaded members of the Coven. "He can sit with us during lunch, it should be no problem. We don't really make friends with the humans," she shrugged.

"I thought the point of the entire practice was for you to mingle," Caius said mockingly.

"It is no fault of theirs if the humans in this area are tiresomely boring," Edward said, upset with Caius' behavior, even though he had known that something like this would happen –with Caius; it was bound to. But, his emotions were human enough, and he had hoped that Caius would at least make an effort.

"They are quite dull," Rosalie agreed suddenly. Edward was suspicious. Rosalie did not voluntarily make conversation with anybody except Emmett. And perhaps Alice, to shop. Before he could know exactly what the beauty was thinking, she spoke. "I don't think that'll be a problem for you, then, Edward, you should fit right in."

Caius laughed. Carlisle looked annoyed, but didn't bother scolding her –words from him never worked on Rosalie. Later, though, when Esme spoke to her using that tone which screamed disappointment, she would feel regret. _"I like this one, Edward, can I keep her?"_ Caius thought teasingly.

Edward shot him a half-irritated, half-amused expression. "Every human I have met has been quite uninteresting," Edward said firmly. "So, no, Rosalie, I don't think I'll fit in that easily."

Rosalie let out a short laugh, sharp and unkind. "Oh, but Edward, you can act so nauseatingly human when you want to."

Edward's fists clenched, and it was Caius who had to nudge him in order to calm him this time. "I am sure that Edward will be fine in the school, there is no cause for worry," Esme said, soothing the growing tensions within the group of people. "Even Rosalie is able to fit in amongst the humans."

Rosalie's face fell, and Edward allowed a smirk to flit across his face –what Esme had intended as a compliment would not seem so to Rosalie. Emmett frowned. "Of course, Rose does, everyone in the school wants her, she couldn't _not_ fit in."

Rosalie smiled at that, moving closer to her mate.

"The rest of you also," Caius looked at Jasper and Alice, "fit in?"

Alice's eyes narrowed as Caius' gaze lingered for a moment too long on Jasper. "We all do fine," she said sharply. "I've actually taken a liking to music class, which means that I am socializing with the humans enough for all of us. And Carlisle has to deal with them every day, anyway. Most of the people in Forks know us by name."

"But do you know them?" Caius retorted.

Alice faltered, and Jasper stood up in defence of his mate. "We know enough of them to live here in peace. We do not trouble them, and they do not trouble us either. Compared to other areas where we have lived, we are fortunate to chance upon Forks, where the majority is kind, and understanding of our preference to keep to ourselves. Even though they find our coupling," Jasper managed a weak smile, "strange."

"Coupling?" Aro asked curiously.

"Since I'm Jasper's mate, and Rosalie and Emmett are together, they think that Carlisle is some sort of pervert who likes pairing up his kids," Alice shrugged, she had grown used to the rumors that circled the Cullen family.

She didn't have Edward's gift of hearing their thoughts, but teenagers thought that they were being quiet when they were the exact opposite. It bordered on annoying. However, after living side by side with them for so long, most of the Cullens had grown, not used to it, but were able to tolerate it at least.

Aro's mind was quick. _"They should be punished for insulting a member of the Volturi."_

Edward looked at him, and Aro knew what he was thinking: Carlisle was no longer a member of the Volturi. Had not been in a long time, even.

_"You are a member, an insult to Carlisle or any of the Cullens could be considered an insult to you,"_ Aro thought, almost an excuse.

Edward snorted. "Excuses," he muttered, and Aro sent him a series of images with words attached. Edward flipped through them almost lazily, anticipating what he was about to be shown.

_Aro looking upset, turning towards Edward with the slightest pout. "It's not fair, it's my job to punish these people, Edward, really, what's the purpose of the Volturi if not?" Aro standing above a human, blood soaking through the white of his collar. "She was mocking you, Edward, she deserves it." Carlisle smiling at Aro-_

He stopped.

He did not think that the last one was meant to be read by him.

Privacy, however, was a fickle thing with his ability –it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where to draw the legendary line. Where to start or stop. Aro had told him that he need not stop, that it was his gift and, as such, his right to use it. Carlisle had once told him that private thoughts were shaded, that Edward would be able to sense it –Edward was, he found after a few years of travel—and that he should not breach that privacy except during times of the upmost importance.

Caius, Edward realized belatedly, was looking at them curiously. He had become used to this, with Edward and somebody else, part of the Volturi usually, sharing a conversation that consisted mainly of thoughts instead of actual words.

Everybody else, though, was not as accustomed to it.

Carlisle in particular looked slightly disturbed.

_"Edward shouldn't spend too much time in Aro's mind. It's not safe. Aro's too much, too much of everything."_ The almost protective thoughts coming from Carlisle made him smile, and Carlisle shrugged, almost an apology, since he knew that Edward did not take kindly to anyone insulting the Volturi leaders.

Edward waved a hand towards Aro in explanation, "He was being- Aro."

There were nods all around, understanding and guessing.

_"Must they linger here?"_ Edward hid the faint smile that threatened to appear; Carlisle hid his thoughts well.

"We must go now," Caius said, as though he too had heard the thought. Edward looked at him carefully, and Caius only shook his head slightly and smiled. _"Do not act too human, Edward, and do not act too old."_ Even the thought sounded vaguely amused.

"Until another day then, Edward," Aro said, and in a flash of movement that his eyes only caught because of his heightened senses, all four vampires who had accompanied Edward to Forks had vanished.

There was a stretch of silence, everyone's eyes on the empty area where Aro and his own had stood only a while ago.

"Well," Rosalie broke the silence. "Good riddance," she spat the words, turning on her heel and walking away towards their house, not running away, for that could be taken as a sign of cowardice. Edward looked at her retreating back with a half-smile. As though sensing his eyes on her, she thought back _"Honestly, Edward, couldn't you have left those barbarians-"_ Edward snorted at the choice of words, since the Volturi were probably some of the most civilized and educated people he knew, _"back at that pile of rocks you consider your temporary home?"_

"Good to have you back, bro," Emmett said, slinging an arm over his shoulder comfortable, as he had probably wanted to do since he had first set eyes on Edward. "It's been too-" _"fucking"_, the word was only thought in his mind, not said out loud out of fear of Carlisle and Esme, "long."

Edward laughed, at ease with Aro and Caius' disappearance. He was comfortable while with the Volturi members, and had that same level of contentment when with the members of the Olympic Coven. However, he wasn't anywhere near at ease when the two groups met –that's when he started wishing death to everything and everyone from Aro to even Esme to Jane, although the last happened quite frequently. "What have I missed in the past few years?" he asked, half out of the politeness that a child from his era had to have, and honest curiosity.

"Nothing important," Emmett shrugged slightly. "I mean, things get boring real easy around this place. There's hardly any sun, so we get to go out a bit and all that, but nothing happens, you know?"

Then he was being suffocated by four feet and ten inches of Alice Cullen.

If he actually had the need to breath, he would have suffocated and pulled away after a few minutes passed. As it was, he only held back, almost as tightly, grinning into the short pixie cut hairstyle, breathing in the shampoo and the perfume and the expensive makeup that lingered around Alice's form.

"I've missed you," she whispered, not too soft, and Jasper smiled at him from where he was standing behind her. Jasper, with his ability, sensed everything that he was feeling –had sensed it when they had first met, even. It was why he had never become jealous of the relationship Edward shared with the smallest woman of the family. Jasper knew that he had no reason for jealousy; it was purely platonic.

"I've missed you too," he replied in kind, although he felt a twinge of fear –he was sure that if he didn't mimic her words, Alice would hit him. And for a person of such a small stature, she was strong, even for a vampire.

"How've you been?" she asked, pulling away after another squeeze.

Edward smiled, shrugging just slightly. "It hasn't been bad experience by any length. I mean, Aro and Caius treat me with the upmost respect, and Marcus largely ignores everyone, although he is quite the listening ear. Aro in particular ensures that the Hunger does not tempt me. Not to mention he makes sure that Jane and Alec are as far away as possible at all times given the size of a place such as the Volterra."

"The Volterra is huge, Edward, it's not that difficult, you know that right?" Emmett asked with pure humor.

"You haven't met Jane or Alec," Edward said with the slightest of scowls. "I think they go out of their way to make my life as miserable as possible. I mean, not only do they absolutely hate me –and I should know, every time they're around me they think of a new way to kill me—but they make sure that they convert half the members of the Volturi so that they hate me too," Edward half-whined.

Alice let out a chuckle but when the force of Edward's glare turned to her, she looked appropriately upset in his stead. "Well, don't worry Edward, the other half like you fine, don't they?"

"Heidi," Edward said the first name that he thought, and then smiled at the image of the beautiful girl in his mind.

"Heidi?" Alice asked curiously.

"Are you two close, Edward?" Esme asked, with that motherly edge that meant that she was being more than just politely curious. _"Then again, I think Alice would tell us if she saw that Edward had found his mate,"_ she reasoned in her mind.

Edward frowned. "She's just a friend, Esme, nothing more. She is quite kind to me, even with her job. She reminds me of Rosalie; actually, they both have an indecent obsession with their hair."

"Speaking of which, whenever are you going to get a haircut, Edward?" Esme asked, clucking her tongue lightly as she walked over, running her fingers through his hair. He would have batted her hand away if not for the fact that he was afraid she would force him to do something about his hair if he argued too much. "I mean, this mop on your head needs to be cleaned-"

"It is not a mop," Edward protested. "Are all vampires blind or simply the ones whom I know?" Esme gave a chunk of hair one last tug before shaking her head and turning back to Carlisle.

"So, somebody else has commented on the fact that your hair appears not to have met a comb for the entire length of your vampiric life?" Jasper teased, and Edward pursed his lips. It was hopeless, he decided.

"Aro and Caius. Multiple times," he said shortly.

Carlisle's thoughts turned at the thought, as though wary again at the mention of Aro and Caius. _"They are exceedingly familiar with Edward. Not unsurprising, considering where he lived, but nonetheless-"_ He stopped abruptly, as though only just realizing Edward would be hearing the words in his own mind.

"They are good to me," he reminded Carlisle, a saying he feared he would become tired of too soon.

"I do not doubt that, Edward, if not I wouldn't have let you stay with them," Carlisle shrugged. "But, you must admit that being so friendly with members of that organization is far from what you should be doing at your age."

"That's exactly what you were doing at your age, Carlisle," Edward pointed out. "How is my doing it any different?"

"When I was your age, Edward, I would have done anything to have someone to guide me through my life. You, Edward, have me."

Edward smiled at the words, and Alice nudged him towards Carlisle. "Your cue to hug him," Alice mock whispered.

Carlisle laughed and shook his head. "There is no need."

A string of pictures was sent to him from Carlisle, _Edward and Carlisle hugging, as they had earlier in the evening, another hug, when Carlisle had first rescued Edward, another from after Edward had made his first kill, another when Carlisle had brought him to the Volturi, another when Edward had told him that he wished to stay-_

"A long time," Edward murmured.

Carlisle shook his head. "Long will come in a while, you must wait yet."

"Emmett," the scream came from somewhere before them, where Rosalie had walked towards.

Emmet looked at Edward, torn between his brother and his mate, and Edward knew that nobody in the clearing was surprised when Emmett shrugged regretfully before he bounded off in the direction of his mate. "Coming, Rose. Patience, didn't Carlisle tell you?" Emmett shouted while running.

"I didn't listen," Rosalie snapped, the words only heard because of his heightened hearing.

Emmett laughed. "'Course you did, Rose, you waited for me didn't you?"

"Only because I knew you'd come, you brute," Rosalie retorted, although the fondness in her tone belied the heat of the words.

"Shall we?" Esme asked, gesturing towards the house.

There was no need to answer, for in the next second, they were all in the house.

-|-

Routine settled within the day itself.

Carlisle was in his office doing paperwork –he made sure that he wrote at the same speed as humans, unwilling to take advantage of his abilities to make the work any quicker—and Esme was cleaning the already clean dishes, a sure sign of stress. _"-must find that boy a mate, poor dear-"_ Esme worried about him far too much, even though he had insisted on more than one occasion that he didn't need a mate.

Emmett and Rosalie were having sex. The technicalities of the act confused Edward slightly, Aro had once tried to look into it, but the number of vampires –no matter how dedicated they were to the Volturi—who were willing to allow themselves up for research on the exacts on erections were few. Edward didn't blame them either. He shuddered slightly, mind moving away from the, _"Fuck, God fucking- Emmett-"_ and _"Rose, hot, so hot around me,"_ that he heard on repeat in the two vampires' minds.

_"Edward really needs to stop thinking about sex. And erections."_ Edward paused. Alice. She wouldn't have been able to hear his thoughts, but his expression clearly indicated his dissatisfaction, and Alice had heard his theories on more than one occasion –there was little he kept from her—and she would be able to guess easily enough.

Jasper's mind, somewhere next to her, was blissfully quiet.

_"You should rest, Edward."_

Jasper, strangely, had always been able to deduce when Edward was going through his thoughts.

"We do not need sleep," he whispered, and he knew that if Jasper strained his ears, he would hear the words without difficulty.

_"I did not say sleep, I said rest,"_ Jasper thought back quickly. The image of a smirking Jasper was in his mind within the same second, and Edward let out a soft laugh. _"You must be tired of having to act like someone else before the Volturi."_ It was a statement, not a question.

"I'm not acting like someone else," Edward said, careful to pitch his voice such that only a vampire in the house who was listening for the words would hear them. Meaning Jasper, and possibly Alice as well, knowing the innate prying nature of the girl.

_"But you do not act like yourself either,"_ Jasper retorted, the sentence accompanied by images of an Edward playing the piano, listening to Aro, talking to Caius, the last few from their short meeting with the members that occurred earlier.

"Perhaps," Edward acquiesced reluctantly.

_"If you insist on not resting,"_ Jasper sensed his distress and changed the topic, _"then I believe that Alice has wanted to watch that fish movie for the umpteenth time now, I could quote it, Edward. Honestly."_ Jasper managed to convey his annoyance even in his mind. _"Can she not choose another movie? After all, she was there when Disney was created, what possible enjoyment could she gain from watching movies that she could create?"_

Edward laughed, and heard Jasper laugh as well a few rooms away. Alice's thought was an immediate reply. _"I'm insulted that you aren't including me in your conversations, Edward. What's so funny?"_

Edward stood up and moved towards their room, standing at the doorway and looking down at the two figures that lay on the couch sprawled across each other. "Nothing. I heard that you wanted to watch a movie? Something about fish?"

Alice brightened. "You'll love it, Edward, really, it's one of the best movies of all time." She stood up and ran down to the television set, and Edward knew that if he followed he'd see her hands flying towards the DVD player and the movie itself, wanting to play it. As if she had heard the thoughts herself, Alice shouted, "Come on or I'm starting the movie without all of you."

Jasper sighed before straightening slowly. "Must you be so kind to her?"

Edward grinned, and Alice yelled up to them again, "Jasper, they're showing the opening credits already."

There was a loud and frustrated yell from the other room and a second later Emmett appeared before them, not wearing a shirt, with his pants barely put on, low enough for Edward to know that he wasn't wearing anything underneath them. "Are you seriously allowing her to watch that damn movie again?" Emmett asked, biting his lip as though worrying about the answer.

"I haven't watched it," Edward replied. "Why?"

Emmett groaned and let himself fall back onto the doorframe. "Rosalie said that she won't do anything if Alice's playing the movie."

Edward hid his smile with trouble. "Why?" he asked, not bothering to break through the barriers of Emmett's mind, knowing that he would be hit with images of Rosalie and Emmett doing things that he definitely did not need to witness, making noises he would rather never hear.

"Because," Emmett looked up and glared at Jasper, who only smiled whimsically –which meant that even if Emmett was annoyed with Jasper, it wasn't anything too serious—"The last time we tried to do anything while the movie was playing, she…" The rest of it was said in a mumble so soft and unintelligible that even Edward's ears couldn't understand it.

"What?" Edward asked, frowning in confusion.

Jasper answered for Emmett, taking obvious and brotherly sadistic pleasure out of the situation. "The last time, Alice broke down the door to come get them, and they were," Jasper's smile was growing into a smirk, "doing things that even Aro probably wouldn't practice."

Edward recalled the earlier conversation in the jet. "There is little that Aro would not do."

"Well, he might do this," Jasper agreed. He was still grinning though. "But Esme and Carlisle definitely don't. You should have seen their faces." Edward's eyes widened.

"They were there?" he asked, and, unable to resist, flickered through the forefront images in Jasper's and Emmett's mind. They were similar.

_Alice knocking on the door and shouting for them to come up. The door cracking open under her final knock. Carving knifes inserted, a gag tied around a mouth –metal and harsh and ugly—and leather on Emmett while Rosalie looked on over him. A blushing Alice, mouth agape and stumbling to fix the door. Esme and Carlisle stepping in, heated cheeks on the former and raised brows on the latter-_

Edward started laughing loudly, bending down to clench at his stomach as Emmett's face reddened and he pouted. "It's not my fault that Alice doesn't know when to keep out of our room," Emmett muttered, only making Edward laugh even harder.

"I've got to ask, but when did _that_," there was no need to specify, "start? I mean, if you had been doing that the last time I visited I would have picked up on it-" The humor in the situation was suddenly lost and he looked at Emmett with a straight face.

Jasper sent a wave of calm towards him, although he didn't think he really needed it. _"Do not worry, Edward,"_ Jasper thought softly.

"You aren't still doing it, are you? Because I really don't need those thoughts, and I know that Rosalie would force them on me." Emmett straightened and smirked slightly, fingers buttoning and zipping his pants as he walked calmly down the stairs. Edward stared at his back. "Emmett?" he asked, worried. "You won't, will you? I really don't need to see that, come on."

Emmett met Rosalie at the bottom of the stairs and primly kissed her on both of her cheeks, the two of them sitting down on the loveseat in unison. Patting his shoulder with some sympathy, Jasper moved towards Alice.

_"If it helps,"_ Jasper thought, _"they managed to hide it from Alice for quite a while, a week or so."_

Edward cringed. Of course, if he thought that it would be bad to hear the thoughts and see the images, feeling what the couple felt while partaking in the activities had to be painful to Jasper. Jasper caught the wince and shrugged.

_"And that was, of course, why Alice was distracted through the week,"_ Jasper continued, slightly smug then. _"She does not mind when the two rabbits in the house have their honeymoons; I always make it up to her."_

Edward forced his expression not to twist at that. He was the last to have something against Alice and Jasper's relationship –but thinking about them _together_, especially considering that he considered Alice the sister that he had never had, was excessive.

Jasper grinned at him.

Esme came into the room, drying her hands with a piece of cloth, although she stopped abruptly before the television and sighed. "Again, Alice?" she asked, shaking her head before she sat down on the couch next to Jasper, while Alice lay on the rug before the two of them, legs kicking in the air. Carlisle entered a moment later and gravitated towards Esme.

Edward couldn't help but smirk at the sight of the man, the memory of the same face gaping fresh in his mind.

Carlisle, of course, noticed. _"I am guessing that Jasper told you?"_ he seemed resigned to the fact.

Edward grinned and nodded. This time, Esme took in the nod and sighed wearily.

_"You've found out, then,"_ she said, not too pleased at the thought. Edward's grin brightened in response. _"I simply don't know what those two were thinking, to engage in such practices while we were still in the house."_ She paused, and as the full meaning of her words caught up to her, she amended them. _"Not that it would be much better if we were not here, but, nonetheless..."_ she trailed off. Carlisle sat down next to her, interlocking their fingers together and kissing her knuckles lightly.

Edward laughed before settling down next to Alice on the floor, nudging at her shoulder with his foot, and she scooted over to make room.

On the television, the fish was telling his father, "Sandy Plankton from next door, he said that sea turtles, said that they live to be about a hundred years old!"

Edward laughed again, because, apparently, he was as old as a sea turtle.


	3. Chapter 3

Shopping with Alice, Edward realized a long time ago, was the closest he would get to dying and going to hell. Alice, in complete contradiction, had fleeting and annoying thoughts of, _"This is heaven,"_ every time they entered a new store.

"Alice?" he asked warily, not daring to interrupt the girl's confusing musings –a string of words that he didn't understand; a continuous stream of images that he would rather not see.

_Edward in a bright orange shirt. "Hmm, not his colour, maybe something a shade darker." Edward in a dark orange shirt, almost becoming brownish black with its shade. "Better, but darker. Edward looks like a clown in colours. Very restrictive. Wonder if I can convince him to get a fake tan-"_

"I'm not going to, Alice, so don't bother," Edward said dryly. "And, it would be best if you stuck to dark colours, grey and black. Caius says that those look best on me." He paused. "Heidi agrees. She's a lot like you with the shopping and the fashion, so I'd trust her."

A wave of annoyance passed across Alice's face before her usual cheerful expression replaced it. "Of course, Edward, but I see you in grey and black all the time. We need you in more colour, I mean, if you want to get any more attention in school-"

"I would rather not-"

Alice interrupted his sentence and continued smoothly. "Obviously you're going to be getting attention anyway," she passed a careful eye over him before nodding once in approval. "You're definitely going to be getting attention, more than the rest of us I think, since you're single and haven't found a mate yet. All the girls will go crazy over you, probably a few of the guys too," she said knowingly.

Edward's lips twisted. "Instead of insinuating to things, Alice, I would prefer if you simply said them out straight."

"Very well," Alice turned on her heel and looked up to meet his gaze. "Are you gay?"

The question stopped Edward mid-stride. "Excuse me?"

"Everybody is curious, Edward, although they have enough courtesy not to think about it or actually say anything about it to your face. But Jasper and I have been talking, and we really want to know, and we promise that we won't judge you or tell anyone or whatever it is you think will happen if you do tell us that you're gay—we won't do it. We'll accept you, Edward," Alice lay a comforting hand on his arm.

He shook it off. "I. Am. Not. Gay, Alice," he said slowly, enunciating his syllables as though talking to a two year old who wouldn't understand otherwise.

_"But you don't have a mate."_ The reason was so quick that Edward knew that they had been thinking about this particular idea for a while. He was taken aback, less about the reason itself but rather because they were able to hide it from him.

"Just because I don't have a mate does not mean that I'm gay, Alice." The shock was wearing off, the annoyance creeping into the edges of his mind but not entering his voice yet, so that he sounded largely amused about the situation instead of anything else.

Alice looked at him disbelievingly. "Won't you even open yourself up to the idea?"

"You do know that it is completely out of my hands, a vampire does not choose his or her mate." The entire conversation had been soft, whispers that only vampires would be able to hear, creatures with ears sharper than that of humans. Alice nodded slowly. "Whomever my mate is, I _know_ that you will not judge me for it. It is not that which I fear."

"Than what is?" Alice asked frankly.

Edward looked at her carefully. "What we are, it makes things difficult to find a suitable mate amongst mere humans. You know that as well as I do. That is exactly why the Volturi asks vampires to remain amongst their own –the chances of finding another vampire to mate with is increased significantly-"

"Provided that it is a vampire you mate with in the first place," Alice countered.

Edward's brow rose. "You are not honestly suggesting my finding a mate in a _human_, are you? I would be quite displeased if you were," the last part was added as a slight warning.

Alice took notice and gave a neutral shrug, her tone carefully measured. "I just mean, you just admitted that mates cannot be chosen, that we do not have a choice over who it is our hearts choose." Edward almost snorted at the overly romanticized statement. Alice took no notice. "Do not make the mistake of turning someone away –vampire or human or otherwise—just because your mind has the pride which your heart should learn to ignore."

A finger poked the middle of his chest –hard—at that, before Alice turned around.

"Alice?" Edward asked with just a tinge of wariness in his tone, looking at the back of her head with unsure eyes –he wasn't entirely sure what had sprung that little speech. It wasn't like Alice, although she did like giving one-liners that she read in one of her books.

"I'm thinking blue, what do you say?" Alice asked, the topic reverted to the old one, her voice slightly louder. "A pale shade of blue, although they'd clash with our eyes," she murmured, her hands flipping through the shirts hung quickly, pausing at a few before turning them away, the reasons loud in her mind.

_"Too light, he'd look like the male version of Snow White. Maybe this? No, too bright, too Supermanesque. God, who would wear this thing. Aro would, ruffles and disgusting lace. This one's possible, proper shade of blue- but, oh, why do companies insist on pasting such large pictures of unknown people at the back of good shirts? Maybe Edward would agree to wear it anyway-"_

"I'm not wearing anything that has the picture of a band whose name I do not care to know at the back of it. Chances are, someone will see it and insist on starting a conversation about the band under the assumption that I know and –_God forbid_—like them," Edward said snarkily, crossing his arms in defence against Alice's pout. Alice opened her mouth, as though to argue, before rolling her eyes and hanging the shirt back on the row.

"Honestly, Edward, you're as bad as Jasper with your choices, at least I get to keep him fashionable. Could you imagine what people would say if they saw one of the Cullens in an outfit that hasn't been seen in years?" Alice asked rhetorically.

Edward answered it anyway. "By years, I assume that you mean 'minutes'? You shoppers exaggerate your time all the time. Heidi did the exact same thing, you know, she would wear a dress one day and the next day, it would be 'So last year'."

Alice snorted. "I cannot believe that you just said that."

Edward scowled. "I was only repeating what she said-"

"How about this one?" Alice asked, holding out a pale blue long sleeved shirt. _"Hm, not bad, it also hides more of our skin-"_ the more practical reason was added almost as an afterthought. _"It's not too expensive either, not that it matters since it's Edward's card, but Carlisle keeps complaining that I spend too much. That's the last time I buy him anything. Edward wouldn't complain, not too much, anyway. And, oh, we need pants, can't wear black with this, he'd look ridiculous."_ The changes in the direction of Alice's thoughts were quicker than he had seen in anyone, maybe with the exception of Caius, who changed his mind all the time.

"Do we really need to buy pants, Alice? I have a number already, they should last me a while if I wear them a few times each-"

Alice gasped. "You can't wear the same pants twice in one week. I mean, are you even _thinking_ about my reputation, Edward? It would be ruined." She sounded somewhere between exasperated that he had even suggested the idea, and frustrated that he continued to look confused.

"What reputation?"

Alice frowned. "All the kids at school know that I," she paused for what Edward guessed was a dramatic effect, "am the reason behind the clothes that all Cullens wear, which means that I am the most fashionable of you lot, except maybe for Rosalie –but she's the prettiest girl in the whole world, so the clothes aren't really necessary for her. Anyway, if you turn up looking like some sort of a street rag, they're going to think that I'm like," she searched for a proper phrase to express her disgust, "that girl in La Push, always in torn clothes and dirty outfits."

"Who?" Edward asked dumbly.

"I don't know her name, we aren't allowed to go there," Alice waved a hand at him. "And, that's not the point. The point is that you will ruin the name that I've created for myself-"

"The dramatic fashionista?" Edward guessed with a smirk.

Alice glared at him. "Edward, we are buying you proper outfits. Hurry up now," her expression cleared to one of a wide grin and bright eyes. "We still have to get you more shirts, one just won't do. Go try this one on," she shoved the shirt into his hands, shooing him towards the direction of the changing room.

Edward, wisely, did not argue.

He changed and stood before Alice, who nodded once –eyes alight with a fervour she only had when she was shopping or hunting, and at that thought Edward paused and shook his head. It was almost scary. "We really need new pants, though," Alice thought aloud. "Yours are so dreary Edward," she said, glaring at his pants as though they had personally insulted her with their existence.

_"This Heidi girl should have bought him better clothes. Well, at least I get to work on him today, it's better than nothing. He should let me burn those things, Victorian fashion went out decades ago-"_

"You aren't going to burn these, Alice," Edward said, half-scolding. "They were a gift; it would be rude to get rid of them just because you think that they're out of style."

"But they are," Alice protested. Edward glared at her and she huffed. "Fine, I won't burn them. But you don't need to wear them while you're here. You can wear the clothes that I choose for you, and since they're technically gifts as well, you've got to wear them."

And with that, Alice went back to the pile of shirts, grabbing the light blue ones that she spotted and throwing them back haphazardly. Edward wondered if he was that predictable that she knew he would catch them. He did, out of pure courtesy to the lady who stood a distance away, eyes large and smile polite.

_"God, does that little bint actually think that I'm going to pick up after her?"_ The angry thought that drifted in her head made him laugh, although he covered it with a cough. He had half a mind to tell her that she would have to, since it was her job, but he kept silent instead. _"Every time she comes here she messes up the whole place. Only reason we still allow her in is cause she buys a fucking load of stuff. What a hag."_

The girl noticed Edward's staring at her and her smile grew more inviting, hand matting down the skirt that she wore. She walked towards him, stopping a foot away. "Do you require any assistance, Sir?"

_"This one's new, she only brings the freak, the giant guy, and that blond bitch. He looks hot though. Probably gay, I mean, who got him those pants?"_

It took some effort for the smile to stay on Edward's face. "No thank you," he said politely. "My sister," he emphasized the relation, "is simply looking for clothes for me."

_"He sure as hell needs new ones."_

"Would Miss Alice need any assistance?" the girl asked, and Edward wondered just how many times Alice must have visited this shop for her name to be known by the sales assistants.

"No, I think she'll be fine," he said, nodding slightly to signal that she may leave.

She took the signal and left, thinking back. _"Why are all the cute ones fags?"_ Then the girl laughed slightly, grinning. _"A fag hag in the store itself, how sweet. I should tell Stacy, she loves these gay guys."_ The girl took out her phone, clicking a few numbers before she disappeared around the corner. Her voice, though, travelled easily to his ears. "Stace? Yeah, you're never going to guess who's in the store. No, not Brad Pitt, what the hell would he be doing in Forks?"

Edward ignored the rest of the conversation, catching another shirt –gray this time, a light colour with a material that felt soft to his hands. "Go try all those on, Edward," Alice said distractedly, focusing on a bright pink shirt on the shelf. _"Wonder if I could convince Jasper-"_

"You don't need to torture the poor guy, Alice," Edward called out before closing the door of the changing room, narrowly missing the shirt that had been aimed at his head.

"Shut up and change, Edward. Try on the first blue shirt that I gave you," Alice ordered. The rustle of cloth from inside the changing room confirmed the fact Edward was obeying the instructions. The door opened and he exited, the blue shirt uncomfortably tight. Alice smirked, sensing his unease and taking sadistic pleasure out of it.

"Must you seem so happy?" Edward asked unhappily.

"Schadenfreude, dear brother of mine," Alice said, fingering the cuffs of his sleeves and patting down his shoulders. "Not bad, where's your old shirt?" Edward threw the black shirt that he had been wearing at her face, not hiding his disappointment when she caught it deftly. "Judy," Alice called out shrilly.

The girl who had spoken to Edward earlier appeared. "Yes, Miss Alice?" she droned, obviously bored.

"Pack this," Alice instructed. "We're buying that now."

"Of course, Miss Alice," Judy said dully.

"You can go now," she waved a hand, and Judy trudged away.

_"So annoying, wish she would just die already. In an accident, or maybe in an elevator crash. Maybe she could drown? Yeah, that'd be so much more painful, and she'd totally deserve it too. Or maybe somebody could kill her, like a serial killer in Forks like they have on that TV show, and he could burn her alive and feed her remains to animals-"_Edward stopped listening to the different methods in which Alice could die.

"Is she still thinking of ways for me to die?" Alice asked, not insulted, merely curious.

Edward nodded. "How did you find out?"

"She mutters it sometimes, and she talks to her friend about it on the phone, some Stace girl," Alice shrugged. "She's not as discreet as she'd let herself believe. I, of course, am far kinder, which is why I haven't told the manager about her."

"I don't doubt it," Edward deadpanned, and Alice shot him a look of something between annoyance and amusement.

"Go try on the other shirts now," Alice commanded, and Edward gave a slight bow, mocking. Then, he returned to the small room and pulled off his shirt, tugging on another one that was blue as well, with a picture of a goat in the front. This, he knew from experience, would take a long while.

A few hours later, he was walking out of the shop carrying in the uncountable bags in his hands at least half the clothes in the store. Not all of them were for him, even. Alice had become distracted all too quickly and decided to shop for the rest of the family.

"Edward," Alice yelled. "We need pants for you, come on," she walked into another shop.

Edward didn't try to muffle his groan.

Boredom dictated that he infringe on the minds of everyone there.

It was something he had done at the Volterra when he had nothing better to do, hearing the thoughts of everybody else had been amusing at some moments, interesting for a few people, slightly depressing when he stumbled across Marcus' dampened thoughts, vile when he heard the words of Jane or Caius, knowledgeable when he chanced upon Aro.

Humans, though, were by and large the most intriguing of the lot.

A girl, average, wearing a plaid skirt, large glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose, clutching at a pile of books. _"I bet they're having sex, probably in the bathroom right now. God, I bet like a billion dollars that Tom tops, he totally does. No, no, it's got to be Bill- wait, no, it's not. I mean, Tommie's the elder brother, but it would be so typical. They probably have orgies in the middle of the bus or something, all four of them-" A fantasy, four boys, one atop the other, another sucking the third, the third nibbling at the fourth-_

The girl's thoughts stopped abruptly as a woman neared, her mother, and then, _"Oh God, another lecture. What is wrong with the mothers of this world? Honestly, do I look like I care about that book?"_ The girl nodded dutifully, grinning as her mother said something.

He moved on, since he guessed that the girl thought of nothing else –it was much like such teenagers to think of nothing but sex and complain about their lives. There was a man in dreadlocks somewhere before him, leaning against the railing of the staircases.

_"It's fuck 'thirty in the afternoon. Should be asleep. Damn that man. Fucking bastard's late and everything."_ This too, he was familiar with. Heidi had acquaintances like this; he had met a number, when visiting one of the pubs that she frequented. He did not understand what Heidi saw in these men –they drank their life away, a comical thought to one who literally did not have a life, and half of them smelled like they did not know about the existence of common soap.

Alice threw something at him and he moved to the changing room automatically, the process not something that he thought about anymore. His mind, though, did not need to see people to be able to hear them.

_A doll, maybe a female, maybe a male, wearing leather pants and with chains hanging around it. "This is so expensive. I wonder if Mom'll be willing to give me my allowance early. Maybe if I get her a present? No, too suspicious. Breakfast for the next week, maybe, or maybe I'll babysit Tim when she's off with the new guy. What's his name? Steve or something-"_

The dolls he had seen before. One of Felix's meals had had a fascination with them. She had been thinking about them during her death; about how she had once dressed one of her dolls as a vampire. She had been thinking about how she wanted her family to burn it, just in case, or maybe stick a needle into it because it might just hurt the vampire that was killing her.

Edward shook his head to clear it and stepped out of the room, turning in a circle when Alice gestured him to do so, grabbing the next pants and already moving to change.

_"Ben 10, I like Ben. I am Ben. And Meg gets to be Gwen, I don't like Gwen. So dumb. Archie gets to be Kevin, cause he's my best friend. And Kevin's Ben's bestest friend. No, I want'a be Batman, yeah. And Archie can be Superman, cause we're best friends. And- and, Mike can be Flash, and Tim can be Mr. Incredible. I'll be Dash, I'm fastest-"_

The child's voice gave Edward pause mid-turn on the third pair of pants he had worn. Alice snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"Are you being rude and reading people's minds again, Edward?" she asked, a reprimand.

"I'm bored, they entertain me," Edward shrugged. "My gift, I should be able to use it. It's like how you think it's your right to look at the future of anyone and everyone you meet."

Alice frowned. "I do not," she said quickly, face guilty. Edward raised his brow, mentally counting down the seconds until Alice snapped. "Okay, fine, maybe I do for some people, but that's only because I want to be able to save them if they die in a car crash or something five minutes later," she excused herself.

Edward grinned. "The same way, I'm making sure that they aren't having suicidal thoughts or the like."

As though someone had heard him speak, he heard the thought.

_"I'm going to kill myself."_

He frowned and straightened.

Alice looked at him, worried slightly. "What did you hear?" she asked, hand wrapped around his forearm. Edward ignored her, focusing to find the strand of thought, trying to follow it back to its origin. Aro had taught him that particular trick, said that it would help if there were too many people in one room –in case it became too noisy and he couldn't track the thread.

_"No, I'm going to kill her,"_ the thought was amended and Edward relaxed, recognizing the frustration as nothing too serious or immediate.

"What?" Alice asked again, shaking his arm almost painfully. "What happened? Is someone in trouble?"

Edward shook his head, grinning ruefully. "Someone's annoyed."

Alice smiled. "Oh, well, that's good." Edward laughed at her choice of words. "Not that, I mean, that someone not being in trouble, not being annoyed- oh, you know what I mean." She was still smiling, though, picking out a pair of jeans and flinging them at him. "Try those on. I don't think I've ever seen you in jeans, Edward. You are supposed to act like a normal teenager you know."

Edward held them up under scrutiny. "They look too tight," he decided.

Alice laughed, joined in by a girl who was walking by.

The girl turned back, looking at him –up and down, elevator eyes that made him want to take a few steps back, and he carefully made sure that her thoughts were not heard by him. "Hon," the girl said, glancing at the jeans, "they're supposed to be tight. And with those legs, why the hell wouldn't you want to wear those things?" The girl rolled her eyes and shared an understanding look with Alice. "My brother's the same, these guys just don't get it," she said, and Alice nodded, commiserating with her.

"He," Alice tilted her head at Edward, "was actually wearing grey pants. Like, you know that Sherlock Holmes guy, with the cigar? That sort." The girl's eyes widened almost comically.

"You let him out of the house in those?" the girl asked, shocked.

Edward wondered if the girl actually knew Alice, or if they were just bonding over the love for all things fashion. He guessed the latter, since Alice was referring to the girl as 'that girl with the cute boots' in her mind. Edward didn't like the boots himself, they looked like they were painful to the girl's feet, and the purple colour was overly bright and painful to his eyes, and the fur that covered it meant that it had to have been painful to the animal that had provided the fur.

A lot of pain in the making of one pair of boots.

"He just came here from overseas, they don't have shopping centers there," Alice excused.

If possible, the girl's eyes widened even further. "They don't? What sort of a rock were you living under? Don't you have even, like, micro fashion sense?" she directed the last question at Edward, taking a few steps back as though she thought that his lack of fashion sense was contagious.

"I have to make up for years of crappy clothes in one day," Alice said, with exaggerated self-pity.

The girl looked at Alice sympathetically. "Good luck, girlfriend. And you baby boy," she looked at Edward, "wear those jeans."

She walked out of the shop, and as soon as she was out of earshot, Edward started laughing. "I cannot believe that you just told an absolute stranger all of that. You were acting like it was a reunion with your long-lost sister." Edward laughed even harder when Alice glared at him, obviously offended.

"I'll have you know that she is my friend," Alice defended her actions.

"Oh?" Edward straightened, although he was grinning broadly. "If she's your friend, what's her name?"

Alice stuttered slightly, and Edward knew that she would be blushing if she could, her cheeks paling even more. "Fine, so maybe she's not that close a friend," Alice consented. "But, we're like minds, Edward. That girl understands me like you," at the word she threw Edward a withering glare, "never do or will."

Edward almost rolled his eyes, but Aro had never liked the action, so he had taken to stopping himself from carrying out the urge. "Sometimes, Alice, you act like such a- a human."

The word wasn't an insult to Alice as it might have been to other vampires, or at least not to the same extent.

Alice made a small sound at the back of her throat. "Why don't you go back to being rude and reading people's minds and just wear what I tell you to?" she asked. Before she could even complete the question, Edward complied.

_"I don't think anyone will even complain if she dies."_ Edward paused, the voice was familiar, deep, but young, mature. _"I don't even need new clothes, what sort of a crappy excuse is it to make us hang out? God, Dad needs to leave the match-making to the professionals."_

Edward felt a startled laugh escape him at the thoughts. Alice, who had been pulling at the belt loop of his pants –something about thicker belts, metal buckles—looked up.

"What?" she asked.

"The boy doesn't want to shop with the girl that his Dad's trying to match-make him with, the boy's considering murder," Edward explained.

Alice grinned. "See? This just proves it, I'm not that bad. After all, you've never thought about killing me for this, have you? Whoever that girl is has to be far worse than me, you should be appreciating me," Alice said convincingly. Edward did not comment, and Alice gave a final pull before shaking her head. "No, the belt won't fit. Pity. Try the other pair that I gave you again, you know, the dark blue ones torn at the knees?"

Edward frowned. "Why would anybody pay for clothes that are torn? They look like it was 'Bring Your Child To Work Day' and said child started cutting away at everything it could find." Alice blinked.

"How did you even think of- Actually, never mind, I give up trying to find out how that brain of yours works," Alice said, hands raised in defeat. "Just go change into the jeans, trust me when I say that they're extremely popular amongst the kids of this day and age."

"You realize that you're part of those kids, don't you?" Edward teased.

"So are you," Alice threw back.

Edward returned to the room, mind finding the words again as he changed.

_"-do I look like the sort of guy who cares about what Jessica Stanley said during lunch? I don't even know the damn girl. Honestly, Leah never acts like this, how come Bella's such a- girl? Maybe Leah does, maybe she just doesn't tell us. That can't be it, somebody would have found out. But we don't have any girls, so that could be it. I wonder if Leah's hiding some secret girly side inside her? Hah, Embry and Quil would tease the hell out of her if they found out, probably why she doesn't actually show it-"_

"Edward," Alice's voice interrupted the flow of thought.

"Yes, Alice?" his tone was cordial, even though he was slightly annoyed at the disruption.

Alice rolled her eyes. "You weren't listening to a word of what I just said, were you?" Without even waiting for an answer –one that would have been in the positive, as they both knew all too well—she continued. "I was just thinking, would you be really against the pants that I've been talking to you about for the past two minutes?"

"Yes," he said, without even looking at the pants, because if Alice was actually asking him, then it meant that even she knew that it might be tilting towards the extreme. And anything that Alice thought was extreme was beyond thought for the rest of them who were normal in comparison.

"You haven't seen it yet," Alice argued, pulling him towards the mannequin that stood in the middle of the room. Edward's eyes fell upon the pants that it wore and felt a twinge of pity for the thing. Then he mentally slapped himself for pitying an inanimate creature, no matter how appropriate the sentiment was.

"You do not have the slightest possibility, in heaven _or_ hell, in making me wear those things," Edward said clearly.

Alice pouted dejectedly. "But look at the lines on the pants, Edward, they're beautiful." She looked up reverently at the pants. "It has an accompanying belt and everything, it's so- God, I mean, if I could, I'd make Jasper wear them, but they wouldn't go well at all with his hair colour, but yours is the perfect colour-"

"Why do my pants need to match my hair?" Edward asked, flabbergasted.

"Because they can," Alice said, as though that explained everything.

"But that makes no sense," Edward burst out.

Alice's eyes moved towards him and narrowed. "Excuse me? These pants," she pointed at them for emphasis, "are pure genius, if you wore them you could get anyone in the school-"

"I thought you said that I'd be fighting off offers even with the awful clothes," Edward reminded her.

"Edward," Alice sighed as though she were a parent tired of repeating the same thing to her child. "The pants are a gift, it's like- heaven, since we can't actually die." Edward had actually thought that they were hell, but he was smart enough not to argue with Alice when she was on a roll.

"Of course, Alice," he paused, trying to find a possible escape route from the situation. "How about you give them to Emmett? He's even taller than me, and the taller the better with those pants, right?" Alice nodded in confirmation, biting her lip as she considered the possibility. "Better yet, give it to Rosalie to give to Emmett, you know that he won't say no to her, so the pants will definitely be worn."

Alice brightened. "Hey, that's not such a bad idea. I mean, Emmett doesn't have your hair colour, but he's big enough to pull off any colour, and who's going to argue with him anyway?" Alice laughed.

"Exactly," Edward agreed enthusiastically, allowing a low sigh of relief to escape him when Alice left, skipping towards the sales assistant to ask for the pants in a larger size.

_"Oh my- those are fucking disgusting."_

The same boy. Edward hadn't been looking for his thoughts this time, but he had found them easily enough. It was a trait he had realized some time after remaining in the Volturi. The more familiar he was with a person's mind, the easier it was to find it. And after a few forays into this boy's mind, it just as easily found him.

Edward grinned, the thought was appropriate to his situation as well. Although, no doubt, Emmett would insist on wrestling with him to even out the score, or, if he was smarter, he would set Rosalie on him.

_"She cannot be serious. I refuse to wear those. Are those- they're actually sparkling."_ The pure horror in the boy's thoughts made Edward slip into the changing room to laugh. If he did it in the open, he would appear half-crazy, he wanted to make a better first impression for himself on the small town of Forks. He might not care for them, but if he was to live with them, he didn't need to be barraged with thoughts of, "That's the crazy guy," every few seconds. As it was, the, "That's the new Cullen kid," thoughts had annoyed him during their walk through the stores.

Edward quickly slipped his pants off, changing into a more comfortable pair –something Alice had bought him that he actually hadn't minded.

"Edward," Alice's high-pitched tone meant that she was either extremely angry or extremely pleased.

Edward exited the small room and calmed, Alice was happy. She was practically beaming, actually. "Edward, you're never going to believe it," she said, voice breathy with excitement. She was rocking on her heels, and Edward knew that if she were human, her entire face would be red with the exertion of keeping silent.

"What?" Edward asked warily.

Alice's hands, which had been hidden behind her back, came in front of her, holding up a pair of pants that looked like the exact same thing he had managed to convince Alice to give Emmett, except- "They have them in different colours!"

-|-

It was over.

Edward wondered if bending down to kiss the ground would be an exaggeration of any means. The sun was setting, the shadows cast across the ground making it dark, a comfortable atmosphere settling around his body. He was sitting down –it had been too long since he had sat—and had a cup of coffee that he had no intention of drinking, but he needed to buy something if he wanted to sit in the cafe. Edward had managed to convince Alice that she should shop for herself for a bit, and the girl had offered little protest before agreeing to the suggestion.

He amused himself by scrolling through the thoughts of the people in the cafe.

_"Fifty three percent isn't enough, we need more—Owen, he owns twenty five percent of all the shares, if we buy him off we should have somewhere near enough, and that Thatch woman owns a few. Who's going to believe that the whole thing's not some kind of joke though?"_ The worried thoughts of a businessman –suit slightly rumpled, glancing too often at the Rolex watch on his wrist. His company was being overthrown.

Edward did not stay. He knew the basics of business –at his age, he knew a bit of just about everything—but he had no particular wish to learn anything more about the topic. To Edward, it was boring. He would leave that to the humans he paid to manage his finances.

_"Oh fuck,"_ the curse rang out loudly just as a cup of coffee was spilt two tables down. The woman wiped at her skirt furiously, murmuring, "Oh, fiddlesticks," unable to say anything worse because of the small girl who stared up at her with innocent eyes.

_"Mom spilt coffee. Her new skirt is wet. Uh-oh. She's going to shout at Daddy today."_ The child was surprisingly perceptive, but most children were, Edward found, more so than their parents thought either way. _"I don't want them to keep on shouting, it's not nice. Little Tommy keeps screaming." A baby boy in a cot, playing with the toy monkey next to him. The same baby screaming, hardly heard over the screams of two adults in the next room. "Hush, Tommy, Cissy's here." The girl picking up her baby brother and rocking him with more experience than a child that age should have with a baby if there were adults in the house._

Edward closed his eyes briefly. Divorced parents were a somewhat strange concept to him. When he was a human, for a woman to shout at her husband or, Heavens forbid, consider leaving him were impossible thoughts. As a vampire, it was a known fact that you mated for life and that you could not hurt your mate.

Divorced parents, he thought, did not understand working for a relationship, always taking the easy way out. He understood that the circumstances could change- _"Damn bastard can't even remember our fucking anniversary. After everything I've done for him, I gave up my job to take care of his damned children-"_

But most reasons seemed almost petty. This woman was not in love with her husband, she was angry with him for not quitting his job and taking care of the children, she was jealous that he was able to have a proper paying job without children running about; she was not in love with him anymore.

He sighed. They were both equally at fault, and he could only hope that the children did not suffer too much from the repercussions.

_"I want to stop."_ The half-whine, half-wail made him smile. The same boy again. He was not in the shop, Edward knew, he would be able to feel the boy's mind's presence closer if he was. The boy was some distance away. _"Why doesn't she just leave me alone? Self-absorbed. God. I wonder if I could get her to cliff-dive and have her hit the rocks?" The image of a pale girl with black hair flying hitting rocks at the bottom of cliffs. "No, knowing Bella's luck she'd probably hit the water and someone would probably help her back to shore or something."_

Bella. Edward took in the name. That was the name of the girl whom the boy did not like; whom his father was trying to convince him to date; whom he thought deserved death; whose presence had annoyed him during the same time that Alice's shopping had made Edward miserable.

But, for no particular reason, Edward did not think that this Bella was anything like Alice besides their habits for shopping.

_"Maybe we could have her killed in some animal fight. That happens all the time, right? Dad wouldn't even be too surprised." The mangled body of the same girl, blood soaking through the ground. "No, too gruesome, even she doesn't deserve that."_ The final thought was almost grudging, and Edward raised the coffee cup to his lips, pretending to drink, to hide his smile.

_"Why the hell would I want a necklace? It's not like I'd wear it, Quil would be bloody cruel."_

Quil, the name came again. Probably a friend, Edward knew the sort, like Emmett –teasing if he acted too formal, girlish, Emmett called it, or if he refused to join Emmett in his explicit descriptions of things he'd like to do to Rosalie, or if he requested not joining in one of his wrestling matches. There was an Embry too, Edward remembered, and then felt a slight pang of sympathy for the boy, it was bad enough having one Emmett, he couldn't imagine having two around.

_"She cannot be serious. I mean, the necklace is bad enough, but having my name on it? I won't be able to get rid of it- maybe I could say that I lost it in the forest? Or that I left it in the car? Maybe I could just throw it in the fire, yeah, that'd be easiest, say it dropped. Even she wouldn't expect me to stick my hand in a fire to get some cheap thing, would she- wait, she just might. Shit."_

The laugh that escaped Edward made the woman and the child to turn towards him, and the woman's eyes narrowed suspiciously before she whispered something to the child that Edward easily picked up. "Stay away from that boy, Narcissa, he's bad news." The girl nodded obediently, but when her mother's attention returned to the stain on her skirt, Edward smiled lightly at her, and she returned it.

_"I think that he's nice,"_ the girl thought confidently, and Edward's smile widened, although he knew that it was only her childish naiveté speaking for her.

_"Maybe I should go cliff-diving, then if I lose it in the sea, she can't expect me to find it. Hmm, not a bad idea. Waste of money though- oh wait, she's getting a bracelet now. How-"_ there was a spluttering in the boy's thoughts, as though he wasn't sure of the word himself, _"gay,"_ he settled on eventually. _"Man, I should have forced Emily to come instead; she might actually be able to get through the day without strangling this girl."_

Emily, another name that he mentally logged, although he didn't know why he was even so concerned with the thoughts of a boy he didn't know.

_"Definitely should've brought Emily. Maybe Sam would have come with her, that way, he might bring Paul. And he'd definitely lose it and kill her before the sun set,"_ the boy lamented.

Sam, Edward guessed, was either a husband, or a fiancé or a brother of this Emily. It was the only reason why a man would willingly follow a woman shopping. Paul, he supposed, was a brother or friend. The other possibility, that it was Paul and Sam who were together, with Sam or Paul a brother to Emily, did not escape him, but he did not linger on that particular thought.

_"Should've asked Paul to come. Could have brought the whole gang too. We could've slaughtered her, man."_ The boy sounded faintly upset that the thought of bringing the 'whole gang' had not occurred to him earlier.

The whole gang comment though, struck a chord in Edward, although he couldn't specify exactly why he was given pause.

_"She probably won't even get it if I tell her that I don't like her. Sad, really, but how to break it to her gently? Dad will have my head if she declared war on us or something, she'd probably get Chief Swan,"_ the name was said mockingly, _"to hunt us down or something. Bitch. Can't curse out loud. Sucks."_

Chief Swan. Edward hadn't been here long; he couldn't place who this Chief Swan was. But he was positive that Alice would be able to tell him if he asked. Not that he would ask. If he did, Alice would want to know why he wanted to know and where he heard the name. If he told her, she'd want to know why she cared about a stranger's thoughts, and to that last question he had yet to find an answer himself.

_"Not that he'd be able to kill us that easily or whatever. But no reason to spark a feud. Like some crappy Romeo and Juliet book or something, except I sure as hell don't love her."_ The boy paused, thoughts abruptly stopping to flash images of the store he was in –Edward saw bright colours and clothes that were all too familiar before he pulled out momentarily, giving it time to ensure that the boy was changing his mind before he dared to re-enter the mind. _"-who the hell lives through this? What are those? She can't really expect me to wear them. She doesn't. Fuck, she does. No way- let her down gently, gently-"_

Edward was given a glimpse of the pair of pants that he himself had been forced to wear –the sales assistant had literally stopped mid-sentence to stare at him, as did half the occupants of the shop. It was embarrassing. He was quite sure that the only reason that they stared was because of the fact that they hadn't expected anyone to actually wear the ugly thing.

_"I don't want to wear this, I don't want to touch it. Maybe I can burn it, hell, that's not enough, maybe I can hire someone to exorcise it or something-"_ Edward snorted into his drink. He should have brought earplugs or something, to make it seem more like he wasn't laughing to himself like a lunatic.

"Edward?" he looked up to meet Alice. Her brow rose. "You're laughing to yourself like a lunatic."

Sometimes, he really wished that his family didn't know him as well as they did.

"Are you listening to the same guy?" Alice asked suddenly.

Edward hesitated before nodded. "Why?"

Alice paused before shaking her head. "No reason in particular. I'm done, come on," she said, tilting her head. She dropped her bags onto the seat before walking away with all the pride of a lioness that had brought food to its cubs.

Or, in this situation, let her cub out to be food, Edward thought maliciously.

"Come on, Edward, we have to give Rosalie Emmett's clothes," she reminded him. He picked up the bags with a sigh –it wasn't that they were heavy, far from it, but he really didn't want to carry pink and gold bags that no man in his right mind would voluntarily visit. They walked through the corridors, careful not to bump into anyone, smiling politely and apologetically –_"charmingly,"_ Alice thought—every time the bags hit someone.

They were almost exiting the shopping mall when the scent hit him –it wasn't particularly unpleasant, something like the woods, the grass and the ground and the different trees that were in it, with something spicy accompanying it, and something else that couldn't place his finger on.

Alice stopped mid-track, her face blanching in disgust. _"Shape-shifter,"_ she thought darkly.

Almost as an immediate reply another thought hit him.

_"Leech."_

The voice was familiar. The boy whose name still escaped him. But before Edward could turn to see who had thought the word, the doors closed behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

Alice was muttering during the entire car ride back to their house –things like, "disgusting" and "stinks" and "mutt" spitting from her mouth. Edward was slightly surprised, since Alice was by far the nicest of their five children, and she didn't seem like the sort to hate an entire species because of who they were. They couldn't choose what their abilities were.

Much like he couldn't choose his own.

"Alice?" he asked, almost afraid that the girl would crash into something or someone through the haze of anger that seemed to surround her. He didn't know why he had let Alice drive, but she had jumped into the seat before he could, and he didn't want to argue with her in the mood she was in.

"What?" Alice snapped.

Edward shook his head. "Never mind, it's nothing." A pause of uncomfortable silence.

"Sorry, Edward," Alice said, looking slightly sheepish at her actions, before she started driving at a more respectable speed. "Do you have something to say?"

"You really hate those shape-shifters, don't you?" Edward asked suddenly.

Alice looked at him with surprise. It wasn't the question that she had expected. "Well, we don't hate them exactly, but vampires and shape-shifting wolves- We aren't exactly supposed to be friends. I mean, did you smell that boy?" her nose cringed at the very memory.

Edward shrugged. "It was-" he didn't continue, because he had a feeling that Alice might hit one of the trees in a swerve if he said the word 'okay'. "There are worse scents in the world," he settled on. "Werewolves, for one, we found a lone one and brought it back to the Volterra. Caius took care of it."

Alice winced, whether in pity for the werewolf or disgust at the pain they both knew Caius would inflict on the creature, he didn't know. "We don't hate them, but they do hate us, so we shouldn't be too friendly or anything," Alice said.

Edward looked over at her. "Oh," he breathed, before turning his head to look out of the window as the trees of the forest rushed by, surrounding them.

They didn't speak for the rest of the journey, although the sense that something was being left unsaid hung in the air.

"Why do you smell like mutt?" Rosalie asked the moment they stepped through the doorway, Edward carrying all the bags that they had bought and Alice carrying nothing. She moved two steps away, not wanting the scent to wash off on her. _"God, you two need a bath."_

Edward stared at her with annoyance. "We bumped into one of the shape-shifters. We didn't even touch him, how could we smell like him?"

Rosalie shrugged. "Hey, don't ask me, but you do." She smirked. "You sure you didn't touch him?"

Edward frowned, hearing the double meaning. "I don't even know what he looks like," he said, as though that finalized the matter. He set the bags gently on the table. "Some of this stuff is for Emmett, give it to him, got it?" He smiled at the thought. At least somebody would be suffering with him.

The question brought the expected reaction from Rosalie. She brightened. "Really? Where are they?"

Edward didn't know, but Alice was already picking up one of the bags –how she could differentiate them, considering the fact that they all looked the same, astounded him—and handing it to Rosalie. "You know those new pants? Those lovely golden ones that they were on that show with the vampires and ghosts and supernatural stuff, the guy with the funny name, Pada-something? Well, these are those pants."

Alice held them out proudly, and Rosalie's eyes widened. "Oh God, they look so perfect." Rosalie sounded like she'd just seen 'The Light'. "Emmett's ass will look gorgeous in those," and she sounded more like she usually did, sarcastic and just _Rosalie_.

Alice nodded enthusiastically. "And I got one in a different colour for Edward too." She reached into another bag and pulled out another pair of pants, the lurid colour making Edward wince internally.

"Tell me, Alice, do you honestly See me wearing that?" Edward asked balefully.

Alice grinned. "Tomorrow, at school, you shall and will wear these."

Rosalie laughed. "All we need is for Jasper to wear one and we'll look like something out of The Sound of Music. Matching clothes for us too, Alice?" she asked, almost taunting.

"Well, since they're going to be wearing those pants," Alice started, ignoring the vehement protests that erupted from Edward at the phrase, "we should wear something nice too. Plus, it'll be Edward's first day in school, people should know that he's one of the Cullens too." _"He's part of the family."_ The thought was soft and gentle, and Edward smiled, knowing that Alice wanted to make sure that he didn't feel out of sorts in the school, that he didn't feel like he didn't have a place in the Cullen family.

Edward could have told her that she need not worry. That he knew his place in the family and in life as a Cullen.

"We need to choose clothes," Rosalie said suddenly. "I mean, we have to pick out shirts and pants and –oh God—Alice, couldn't you have done something about his hair? Never mind, we'll work on that later. Oh, and we have to do our own clothes, and I think I might have a split end, so you'll have to work on that with me. And, since we want to be thorough and all that, we should get Carlisle and Esme proper clothes too. I think Esme's going out tomorrow for some children thing," she noticed Edward's confused expression and explained, "sometimes when she's really bored she goes out for this thing where you help kids do stuff-"

"What Rosalie means," Esme swept in, hair tied neatly in a bun, wearing a simple dress with none of the frivolities that he saw on his adoptive sisters. "Is that once in a while, I help the school –you would have seen it once in a while, all the young children in Forks attend it—bring the children out on an excursion. I don't, as Rosalie stated, do it because I'm bored-"

"Yes you do," Rosalie sniped. "She has absolutely nothing to do here, Edward, she drives us all crazy."

Esme mock glared at her. "Don't insult your mother, child of mine," she teased, not feeling the bite of Rosalie's words –she knew that Rosalie didn't really mean offense with them. "I do have very little to do, and the mothers there are quite conversational."

"It's disgusting," Rosalie added. "I mean, the women here are totally useless, half of them are stay at home housewives or something without jobs, they all depend on their husbands, and almost no girl here can take care of herself. It's like the feminist movement completely passed over this place."

Edward snorted. "I'm sure you'll bring it back, Rosalie. And I'm sure that not all of them are useless, you think little of humans as a whole, so of course you'd think less of the girls-"

"Actually," Alice said, "she might be right with this one. From what we see here, the girls are really dependant on their men." She frowned, and then turned to Esme. "I'm not like that with Jasper, am I?"

Esme shook her head. "Of course not, Alice, I think that with all of you kids, it's the men who depend on their women."

"So Carlisle would be nothing without you, right?" Alice asked jokingly.

"Almost definitely." Carlisle walked in through the door, placing his briefcase on the floor before walking towards Esme to kiss her lightly on the cheek. "You just finished shopping?" he asked Alice, and at her nod, smiled with commiseration at Edward. He knew how difficult Alice could be with her shopping. Then Carlisle's eyes fixed on the pair of pants that were slung over Alice's arm. "Do I want to know who those are for?" he asked her carefully.

Edward shook his head. "You're welcome to take mine," he offered, and before he could finish Carlisle was shaking his head.

"I have perfectly fine pants, thank you," Carlisle said. "If I wore those, I think the nurses might faint," he grinned, hand falling around Esme's waist. "They've never seen me in anything but proper pants-"

"These _are_ proper, Carlisle," Alice argued. "They're tight, and the colour is –as you can see—absolutely perfect, and the belt is the best thing ever since sliced bread."

Rosalie's brow rose. "Sliced bread?"

"It's an expression," Alice rolled her eyes.

Carlisle grinned. "Of course, and am I to assume that Edward will be wearing those tomorrow for school?" Edward nodded glumly.

"There's a pair for Emmett too," Rosalie said, as cheerful as a person like Rosalie could be.

"Ah," Carlisle said. "Please give him my condolences."

"Carlisle," Esme hit him on the arm lightly. She caught sight of Alice's pout and continued, "Don't be rude, those are lovely pants, Alice."

"Sane people don't think so," Edward said.

_"Edward should have been there, man, best match ever." An image of Emmett wrestling with Jasper, the cracking of a tree following it. "So fucking fun, made for the win. Poor man, shopping with Alice. Hope she didn't get anything for me. Every time she buys something she gets Rose to give it, and I can't say no to my mate, it's not fair-"_ The troubled thoughts were approaching the house, and Emmett half leapt in a moment later.

"Edward, my man," he said at the sight of Edward. "You should'a come with us instead of going shopping with Alice, you should've seen it. That tree actually broke when I threw Jasper at it, and then I broke a rock, this huge thing, so cool-"

"Emmett," Rosalie snapped, upset that her mate wasn't paying attention to her.

"Yeah, Rose?" Emmett asked, a hand slung around Edward's shoulder, pulling at his neck.

Rosalie smiled sweetly. "Look what I've got you." She held up the pants with a glint in her eyes. _"Ignore me, why don't you. Well, you get to wear these too, so hah. And, Edward, stop reading my goddamned mind."_ Edward shrugged, not exactly an apology, and Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Privacy, brother dearest."

Emmett's hand dropped like a lead weight had been attached to it. "Er- for me, Rose? You didn't have to," Emmett said weakly.

Rosalie's smile looked more like a smirk to him –vindictive and victorious. "Oh, but you're my mate," she emphasized the word. "If I can't even get you the latest pants on the market, what can I get you?"

Emmett walked towards his mate, hand reaching out reluctantly to take the article of clothing. "A new Ipod? Maybe a phone? Or, maybe we could go hunting sometime? I mean, so many possibilities and you get me- _this_?" Emmett didn't seem to be able to describe the pants any further.

The rest of them were watching on with obvious amusement.

_"Please tell me that Alice didn't get one of those for me too."_ The thought came from somewhere behind him, Jasper. Edward shook his head discreetly, and a sigh of relief could be heard. Alice turned sharply.

"Jasper, where've you been?" Japser walked towards Alice, kissing her before taking his customary position behind her, to her right.

"I decided not to run home, unlike someone else in this room," Jasper said, staring pointedly at Emmett.

Emmett shrugged lazily. "Why walk when you can run?"

"Why learn to crawl before you walk?" Jasper countered.

"Because you have to?" Emmett answered with a question.

"Because you can," Jasper corrected.

"You ran before you could crawl?" Edward asked, somehow not surprised, it fit the image he had of Jasper as a child, somewhat reckless, easily excited, enthusiastic about everyone and everything.

Jasper nodded shortly. "Yes. It wasn't difficult."

"Not to you," Emmett said, not harshly. "To normal people, it is."

"Emmett," Jasper said patiently.

"Yeah, bro?"

"Maybe you should go try on those pants," Jasper suggested. Emmett scowled, reminded of the thing, and Edward received an extremely vivid image of Emmett giving Jasper the finger.

"I agree, go on," Rosalie said, waving a hand in the direction of the stairs. "And hurry."

Emmett slouched, then he grinned and straightened, looking at Jasper, and shouted, "Sir, yes, Sir," before saluting and running. Jasper looked annoyed with the reply, but his thoughts weren't particularly dark. He liked the fact that people had become more comfortable with his past. Edward was plainly amused.

"Don't worry, Jasper, we'll get him later," Alice said, patting Jasper's arm in a pacifying manner.

"Oh?" Rosalie asked, in defence of her mate. "And how are you going to 'get' him?"

"Easy," Alice shrugged, glancing at her parents –worried about whether they would scold her or the like—before she continued. "We'll ask if he's trying to overcompensate for something with all those muscles and that jeep he has," she grinned.

Edward started laughing, loudly.

Rosalie pouted. "He is not," she said firmly.

"Well, we'll make sure that you aren't there, and then we can say-" The sing-songed words rang in her head, although Alice didn't say them out loud. _"That's not what Rosalie sa-a-aid."_

Edward laughed louder.

"Wait, what would you say?" Rosalie demanded.

"We can't tell you now, can we?" Alice said haughtily. "We'll just have to tell him when you aren't here." She changed the topic swiftly before Rosalie could pursue it. "Sorry Jasper, but I couldn't find a colour proper for your hair and all," she stroked Jasper's hair for a moment before retracting her hand.

"Don't worry," Jasper said coolly, "I don't mind." _"Thank Gods I didn't dye my hair when Emmett asked me to."_

"I got you a shirt though," Alice continued, fishing through one of the bags to pull out a simple grey shirt.

Edward frowned. "Why is it that you insist on my wearing colour but don't force the same thing on Jasper?" he asked.

Alice rolled her eyes, as though the question wasn't deserving of an answer.

"Well?" Edward pressed.

"Because, Edward," Alice sighed heavily, "I haven't seen you wearing a single piece of clothing with colour, and I'm willing to bet that if I open your bag the whole thing will be in blacks and greys. Whereas Jasper here, thanks to my shopping abilities, has a variety of colours for me to play around with. Got it?"

Edward nodded, although he hadn't gotten it in the least.

"What else did you buy Edward?" Esme asked, and Alice pulled out even more clothes –Edward didn't remember half of them—and started explaining in excessive detail why they were bought, and how they were suited to Edward, and what else they could be worn with, and what weather they could be worn in, and even more reasons that he had no real desire to listen to.

"Edward, go see what's taking Emmett so long," Carlisle said after a few minutes of Alice's chatter. "Convince him to come down and tell him that we'll make sure nobody laughs at him," he looked at Edward and Jasper carefully at the last part of the sentence, and Edward smirked before nodding and walking towards Edward's room. After a few whispered words to Alice, Jasper joined him.

"Does he really think we aren't going to laugh at him?" Jasper asked. He had not been with Carlisle and the rest of them as long as the others. Even now, Edward realized, Jasper found it difficult to differentiate the meanings of Carlisle's words or the thoughts behind Esme's actions. Even with his ability, separating the nuances of a family lifestyle seemed not to come naturally to him.

"Oh no," Edward assured him. "He knows that we're going to be laughing at Emmett, and he knows that I'll know when he's laughing at Emmett himself, but he also knows that if Emmett decides to listen in now, we have to make sure that Emmett doesn't think that Carlisle's being biased or anything against him, get it?"

Jasper blinked dumbly for a few seconds before nodding slowly. "Carlisle is being pre-emptive, he's ensuring that Emmett will not be able to suspect him of favouritism, correct?"

Sometimes, Jasper's style of language –formal, strict was the more accurate term—gave Edward pause. This was one of those times. He made Carlisle sound so _un-Carlisle,_ if such a thing could be. He made Carlisle not seem like the compassionate person that he was by nature.

Jasper frowned. "I am incorrect. You are displeased with my interpretation of Carlisle's actions."

"Not exactly," Edward said soothingly, he didn't want to hurt Jasper, if only out of fear of Alice's reaction. "It's just that to Carlisle," Edward floundered to explain it. "He's trying to be a proper Dad, and one of the things you're supposed to do when you're a Dad is make sure you don't seem to be caring more about one child as compared to the next, see?"

Jasper's frown deepened. "But Carlisle likes you best out of all of us five, it is obvious, even to someone without my gift. Even a human would be able to tell you as much."

The words made Edward smile in an almost childish manner –a one-upmanship of sorts over his siblings—but Jasper told the truth. Everybody knew that Carlisle favoured Edward. Although, it was partially because they had spent more time together than the rest of them. Even if he hadn't been with Carlisle during the years, they had still made sure that they stayed in touch.

Carlisle was extremely father-like in that sense.

"He still tries not to show it," Edward gave Jasper a one armed shrug. "It's his duty, as a proper Dad."

_"I don't understand."_ The thought was laced with frustration.

"You will, give it time," Edward reasoned, wishing that he could send Jasper a wave of calm as Jasper always had for him in these tense situations. "Calm down, it took me years to understand why Carlisle did the things he did. Even now I don't fully understand half his actions."

He turned, since they were already at the door of Emmett and Rosalie's room, and rapped his knuckles against the wood twice. Gently, because he didn't think that Esme would appreciate another broken door, and the company that sent the doors might suspect that they were abusing each other or the equivalent. "Hey, Emmett," Edward announced, stepping into the room. He stopped.

Emmett was standing before the mirror, balefully staring at himself in the mirror. He had taken off his shirt, as though to see the full effect that the pants alone would have. Edward personally thought that he didn't need a shirt to have an effect, the pants were-

Jasper burst out in amused laughter, Edward joining him a second later.

Emmett turned to meet them, eyes in angry slits as he let out a growl. They only laughed even louder. Another growl escaped Emmett, feral and low, and Edward managed to choke out, "Really, Emmett, you sound like one of those shape-shifting wolves that Alice was telling me about earlier-"

The words were a mistake, and Jasper immediately let out calm in Emmett's direction, stopping the larger man from pouncing on Edward and trying to tear apart his limbs with his bare hands. Jasper was still grinning himself though, a chuckle escaping him once in a while.

"You do look quite," Jasper snorted, a sound so undignified and not one that anyone had ever heard Jasper made that it made Edward look up, "comical." Edward had to bend down again, clutching his stomach.

It was strange, but he had laughed more in the past two days with his family than he had for the past few decades while with the Volturi. Maybe not so strange, he thought as an afterthought, since the Volturi were hardly the type of people who encouraged laughter or cheerfulness. Time spent with them made everything more subdued somehow, the very grounds of the Volterra causing people to be silenced; babies to stop crying, children to stop whining, teenagers to stop complaining, parents to just stop. Not strange at all.

"I cannot believe that you-" Edward broke off as he caught sight of Emmett again.

Emmett stopped growling, only crossing his arms across his chest and glaring down at the two of them once he straightened to his quite impressive height. Jasper straightened as well, only a few inches shorter than Emmett, with the added help of a presence that none of them had –immediately commanding attention, similar to Aro. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Edward felt sharp pangs of regret for even thinking it; Jasper was nothing like Aro.

Jasper looked at him strangely, sensing the feeling but not knowing the reason behind it. Edward shook his head to show that all was fine.

He looked at Emmett, amusement making his golden eyes bright, practically dancing. "You're actually wearing them," he said disbelievingly.

Emmett shrugged. "Rose told me to, I can't actually say no to her, you know."

Edward's lips thinned so that he didn't start laughing again. "Of course," he agreed. "I still can't believe you're wearing those though."

The pants, the golden pants that Alice had so lovingly bought for her brother –without the intention of causing him public humiliation, if her thoughts were to be believed—looked, as Jasper had said, comical on him.

They were tight, wrapping around the muscles of his legs in a way that Edward knew Rosalie and more than a handful women on the streets and in school would appreciate. They were also tight around other areas of his body, and Edward hoped for Emmett's sake that Rosalie didn't decide to be especially seductive on the day because it would show all too obviously. The golden colour, with that Alice had been right even though Edward didn't want to admit it, went nicely with his hair colour, and if he imagined Emmett wearing the matching shirt that Alice had decided on, the man would look good.

But still comical.

_"Stop being so amused, Edward, or I shall start laughing again and Rosalie might just kill me."_ Jasper's thought made him feel a fresh wave of amusement that he tried to squelch, unsuccessfully, if Jasper's twitching lips were any indication. _"You have absolutely no control of your emotions,"_ Jasper reprimanded.

"Are you going to actually wear those to school, Emmett?" Jasper asked politely.

Emmett fell back on the bed that took up a large space of the room. Only Edward's room didn't have a bed –he had no use for one. The others in his family, though, had mates, which meant that they could make plenty use of it. "I don't want to," the words came out more as a whine than Emmett had wanted them to.

Edward moved closer, leaning against the bedpost. "Well, you have a choice, after all. You could tell Rosalie that you think that-"

_"These pants are the most atrocious thing I've seen invented ever since that stupid movie about vampires and werewolves that Alice forced us to watch."_

"Exactly," Edward said, hearing Emmett's almost vengeful thoughts, "You could tell her that."

Emmett's head tilted up to look at him. Then Emmett's gaze slid over to Jasper. "Please explain to our brother here who is without a mate why I can't tell Rosalie that I don't want to wear these and that I think that they're the most atrocious thing I've seen invented since that stupid movie about vampires and werewolves that Alice forced us to watch?"

Jasper defended his mate first, "It wasn't that stupid." At Emmett's sceptical stare, Jasper cracked. "Fine, maybe it was. But, Edward, you can't just tell your mate no. And, I'm not sure if you've realized, but the female mates we have in this house are more- demanding than most mates. Even if they weren't mates, I doubt anyone would dare to disagree with either of them. Plus, I've never seen you turn down a single one of Esme's request, and she's only your adoptive mother."

Edward grimaced. "Now that last one is entirely not my fault, neither of you have refused her either. She's just too nice, how're you supposed to say no to someone like that?" He didn't bother arguing the point about Alice and Rosalie. Jasper was right, they were formidable women in their own right.

"True facts," Emmett agreed solemnly. "Although, I really don't want to walk out of the house in this. Hell, I don't want to walk out of the room in this."

"If you present yourself appropriately, I don't think Rosalie will let you leave the room," Jasper said, and it took a second for Edward to realize that Jasper had made a joke. A blatantly sexual one. Edward made a face.

"Not you too," he bemoaned the loss of yet another male in the house to Emmett and his wicked ways –since he couldn't think of a more appropriate term, no matter how old-fashioned he sounded with that particular phrase.

Jasper smirked. "Rosalie becomes easily jealous," he informed Emmett. "As do you, it works out well most of the time. In this case, if you emit the proper mood with the accompanying hormones, you might be able to convince Rosalie that it would be too tempting to the humans for you to wear that particular attire out of the house. I only ask if that you choose upon this course of action, you wait until I have taken Alice away from the house before you act."

Emmett's head rose with hope. "You're affected by everything we do?" he asked, his brows raising.

Jasper noddd. "Alice is extremely understanding."

Emmett leered. "I bet. You affected by everyone on the streets?"

"Generally, since I feel the emotions of all of them. It is difficult in a school, all these teenagers with no control over their emotions, much like our Edward."

Edward didn't take too much offence over the insult. He was, emotionally, probably the least mature amongst them. Emmett was in a constant state of optimistic cheer, Rosalie the opposite with her sarcasm and harsh words, Alice with the hyper activeness that followed her everywhere, and Esme and Carlisle need not even be mentioned in the list. As far as Edward was concerned, they had almost too much control, honestly.

Edward winced nonetheless. "That must be painful."

Jasper shrugged. "I will only be hit with emotions. You are going to be assaulted by thoughts of you in sexual positions, others in sexual positions, you and others together in sexual positions, possibly with a multitude of partners. You are going to be aware of every suicidal or homicidal thought, every blatantly narcistic or cruel thought, every wish and desire. It is you who should be pitied, not me."

The end of the speech was met with a long stretch of silence until Emmett broke it.

"Man, Edward, you're fucking screwed."

Edward almost laughed. "I might be able to block out a few of the thoughts."

"But not all, you have yet to master that level of control," Jasper said knowingly.

Edward nodded in agreement. "True, I guess this will be a practising ground of sorts, for both of us." Then he turned to Emmett. "You know what else? I will also be hit with every thought about you and some other girl, which I could very easily pass on to Rosalie, or better yet, every mocking insult about that costume, which I would be kind enough to tell you."

Emmett's head dropped again.

Then, "You know what the bright sight of this whole damn mess is?" Emmett wondered out loud, head tilted up to stare at the ceiling through the thin fabric that hung over the bed.

"What?" Edward asked.

Emmett smirked. "You have a pair too."

-|-

"We're not watching the movie with the fishes again, Alice, no way in hell."

"Rosalie, mind your language, please."

Rosalie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Esme. There's no way we're watching the movie with the fishes again, Alice, no way in heaven, better?"

Esme sighed as well, more wearily. "Not very much, actually. But, I must say that I agree with Rosalie this time, Alice, we've watched that movie so many times I could probably quote the entire thing now if you wanted me to."

Alice hmphed, and Edward thought that if she were any younger she would have stomped her foot as well. "Oh? If you can, then how old is Crush?" she asked, looking around at the occupants of the room.

Edward was standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at the scene with unhidden amusement. Emmett was still in the room, stalling for time by studying himself in the mirror, Jasper trying to convince him to actually exit the room. Even Emmett could tell that he looked absurd –more like a model on one of those television shows that they had no interest in than a normal student of a school in a place nobody had heard of.

"Even I know that one," another roll of eyes from Rosalie, "he's a hundred and fifty. Now that I've proved my knowledge or whatever, do you agree to watch something else?"

Alice did stomp her foot this time. "That was easy, wait, I'll think of another one."

"How about we ask you a question instead, and if you can answer it, then we'll let you watch it another time?" Esme suggested. Rosalie sent her a look, and Esme waved her down. "Now, what are the names of the three sharks that Marlin meets and what is their motto?"

Alice brightened. "Well, that's easy. Fish are friends, not food," she quoted before continuing. "And their names are Bruce, Chum, and Chore."

Esme shook her head. "Sorry, that was the wrong answer. The correct answer would be Bruce, Chum and Anchor. Nice try, though." Esme watched as Alice's face fell and Edward knew that she would cave. "However, since you did attempt to answer the question, we'll let you choose the movie that we do watch, how about that?"

Alice hugged Esme briefly before dropping to her knees in front of the television and flipping through the CD cases.

Rosalie stared at Esme. "I can't believe you actually allowed her to choose. If not that dumb fish thing she's going to choose-"

"Tarzan," Alice said excitedly. "We haven't watched this in ages," she said, placing a little too much stress on the last word.

"If I remember correctly, I think we watched it two weeks ago, Alice," Carlisle said, dropping on the couch next to Esme. "However," he added at Alice's pout and as her mouth opened, surely to reason her case, "I have nothing against the movie and would be glad to watch it again."

Rosalie slumped into the chair. "Well, if anybody cares, I have something against it and I _don't_ want to watch it."

Emmett was pushed out of the room by Jasper. "I really don't want to go down," he said sadly.

"Hurry up, Emmett," Rosalie snapped loudly from below them, obviously picking up on the words.

"The Queen calls for your attention," Edward whispered mockingly.

Rosalie looked up sharply, hearing the words no doubt, and he saw Esme send him a slightly disapproving look from the sofa. Emmett walked down the stairs, and the barrage of mixed thoughts were almost a delight to hear.

_"Oh my, poor Emmett. I can only hope that he manages to get himself out of this situation, maybe I should talk to Esme about it, he looks terribly upset."_ Carlisle, ever the worrying father.

_"But Emmett looks absolutely charming, Rosalie will never let him out of the house. At least, I don't think she will, she knows female mentality better than all of us, unless she wants to tempt half the students at the school, she wouldn't dare. Then again, this is Rosalie, that might very well be her intention."_ Esme, smarter than most people gave her credit for. It was why she often won in feuds, people underestimated the housewife with the pretty dresses and perpetually young face.

Alice jumped up, the CD lying forgotten on the floor. "Emmett, you look gorgeous," she half-squealed, moving towards the half-naked man.

"Why aren't you wearing a shirt?" Esme asked, smiling slightly.

Emmett shrugged, and Edward could see the ripple of muscles under his shoulders. "Didn't feel like it."

"I was right," Rosalie announced, not standing to meet her mate. "Turn around, Emmett." Emmett did as she ordered, turning around and staring at the wall for a few moments until Rosalie gave a satisfied nod. Emmett had no way of seeing the action, or hearing a change in air –their ears were not that sharp—but he seemed to know it anyway, and turned back to face her. "It does make your ass look wonderful," Rosalie said. _"Fucking delectable, love."_ The grin that Emmett shot Rosalie made Edward think that maybe Emmett had heard the thought too, but it was impossible.

The two just knew each other that well.

_"I knew I should've gotten Jasper one of those too, probably would've looked gorgeous. Maybe I'll go back after school tomorrow and see if they're getting any new colors? Yes, I should do that, it'd make things better. After all, it's completely unfair that Edward and Emmett get to have these pants and Jasper's all left out."_ Alice's thoughts were worried, almost frenzied, and Edward knew she was worried about her mate feeling like a third wheel. Jasper sensed it too, and moved down the stairs quickly to stand next to his mate.

Edward walked down at a slower pace, and Carlisle caught his eye. _"Is something wrong, Edward?"_ Carlisle asked. Edward shook his head subtly in answer before his face lit up in a smile. Everything was wonderful, actually. It was almost as if he had never left Carlisle, as if he hadn't spent all those years with the Volturi.

He wondered what Aro and Caius were doing right now. Caius would probably be having another meal, he ate when feeling too much. If he was upset, he went on a hunt, becoming more vicious than usual; when he was angry he took it out on the unfortunate soul who was his food for the day; if he was happy he played with his food, following them, letting them feel as if they may escape, before attacking. His sense of humor was not one that Edward understood, but he didn't think that he should understand Caius too well either.

Aro would be doing something important; that was what he called the times that he spent locked away in his room.

Edward had never bothered to find out exactly what he was doing then.

The fact that either Jane or Alec or sometimes even both would disappear during those hours spoke more for his activities than Edward would have liked to know.

"Edward, how come you haven't tried on your pair yet?" Alice asked, seeing him.

Edward paused, trying to think of a suitable reply. "I don't wish to wear it tomorrow?" he said, trailing off in a question.

Alice looked shocked. "Why?"

"It's not exactly my type, Alice," Edward said gently. "After all, I only have one pair of those pants, if I wear them tomorrow, people will come to expect me to wear such flamboyant outifits. And while it's good and well to look nicer on your first day at school, I don't think that it would be the best impression."

He snatched at a floating memory in Alice's memory. _A woman sitting behind a desk looking extremely bored, biting at the end of a pen. An old and slightly rusted nameplate saying 'Mrs. Linda Thomas, Receptionist' at the front of the table. "Hello, I'm here to enter my children, this is Alice." Esme's voice, their first day at school. Too many eyes on them, watching their every move, studying them without any discreetion. "Gods, don't these people have any shame?" Rosalie's voice, sharp and bitter, although the image that followed was of her smiling at a handsome jock. Emmett glaring at the same boy. Alice soothing Jasper with soft words. Jasper flinching away from the multitude of emotions. "Don't worry, I won't let you touch them." Jasper hugging Alice, ignoring the strange looks sent their way-_

"The Mrs. Thomas in your school," Edward said, as though he hadn't been going through Alice's mind. "She would find it uncommon, and if ever an emergency comes up, I don't need her labelling me as 'That boy with those tight pants' because she's forgotten my name."

"I don't think it's possible for anybody to forget your name, Edward," Esme said gently. "You leave quite the impression."

"Yeah, like that woman in that store we went to earlier?" Alice pointed out.

Edward looked at her with a raised brow. "Do you realize just how many shops you dragged me to during the length of one day, Alice? That woman in that store is hardly the most eloquent of descriptions."

_The image of a woman with long red hair, kind brown eyes, holding the hands of two of her children on either side, twins. Both of them were crying. People staring at her and the children. The woman blushing. The woman having trouble to pick up the clothes that she had dropped on the floor. Edward helping her. Edward giving each child a chocolate, effectively silencing their cries. "Thank you so much, uh- I'm sorry, but do I know you?" Edward shaking his head. "Edward Cullen, I'm new in town." The woman's eyes widening in recognition of the name-"_

"That's her," Alice said, once the memory stopped and Edward pulled out.

"How do you know that she remembered me?" Edward asked, sincerely curious.

"I met her again in another store while I was shopping for myself," Alice answered simply. "She said to say 'thank you again to your lovely brother Edward. Such a charming boy Esme and Carlisle have grown'. She didn't compliment me at all, even though I was wearing the most adorable shirt ever too-"

"She knows us?" Esme interrupted smoothly.

"Her name was Mrs. Crossley, sound familiar?" Edward asked.

Esme thought before nodding slowly. "Yes, she has children. Two girls, twins, cry quite frequently but are easily appeased. They come to the trips that I manage, like the one that I'm helping out with tomorrow."

"Esme probably knows all the mothers and their kids and their husbands and their ex-husbands and the name of their college sweethearts," Rosalie commented, not completely snidely since there was some truth to the words as well. Esme took it upon herself to know their neighbors, to become more familiar with them, and as such, she talked to them more often than all of them probably had combined.

"She's a lovely lady," Esme said neutrally. "She has a son too, but he's far older, almost thirteen now, his birthday's coming up in a few weeks actually. I think that we might be receiving an invitation."

Rosalie made a face. "You cannot seriously expect us to attend some teenage human's birthday party."

Even Alice seemed surpriseed by the request. She glanced at Edward and said quickly. "We've gotten invites before, but we usually turn them down. According to the citizens of Folks, the Cullens have a summer house some distance away and they visit it extremely frequently because their grandparents stay there. The old lady in the supermarket says that we're angelic kids to go see our grandfolks, her own grandkids hardly ever see her, and they actually live _in_ Forks," Alice said, slightly disgusted by the behavior of the children.

Alice, for all her childishness, didn't like it when people were knowingly unkind to others –she didn't have that cruelty in her. It was what made her Alice.

"We never celebrated birthdays at the Volterra," Edward said, and when surprised glances were sent his way, he only shrugged. "We are not humans, we have no need to adhere to their traditions and celebrate a meaningless day. Birthdays, one more year of life, one year closer to death. Aro thinks it's pointless considering the fact that we cannot actually die."

Esme frowned, clearly not at ease with the sentiment. "Well, we'll definitely be celebrating your birthday." She face cleared. "In fact, Edward, if you make friends with your human schoolmates, you can visit them to the house and I can cook for them." Clearly, Edward thought, the human habit of cooking had yet to leave Esme.

He grinned. "I don't think I'll be making many friends with the humans, but I shall keep the thought in mind."

"Why, Edward," Rosalie drawled, head resting on Emmett's shoulder comfortably as she looked up at him through half-lidded eyes. "If you don't want to make friends with humans, you probably can with those mutts. After all, you seem to like them, don't you?"

"Mutts?" Emmett asked, confused with the turn in conversation.

Edward tensed.

Rosalie continued. "Edward here smelled like pure mutt when he came back from shopping, apparently they met one at the mall."

Edward was quick to argue. "I haven't even seen him-"

"If you didn't see the mutt, how do you know that it's a he?" Rosalie asked pointedly.

Even Alice looked uncomfortable. Jasper was contemplating sending calm throughout the room and Edward shook his head, there was no need for that. "I heard his thoughts. When a person thinks, they think as they sound like. You, Rosalie, I wouldn't mistake for a male. I would never even if I did not know you that you were female." A conceited, arrogant one, but a female nonetheless.

Carlisle stepped forward. "You heard his thoughts?"

Edward nodded. "Through the trip, just a few sentences now and then."

_"He's the boy you were listening to, wasn't he?"_ Alice asked, and Edward looked at her, blinking once. Alice understood the answer for the positive response it was.

"Well," Alice said loudly. "It doesn't matter anyway, the shape-shifters don't live anywhere near us, and they can't cross the border anyway. Let's watch Tarzan, shall we?" She turned and inserted the disk, and Esme took control of the situation, herding them into their seats, making sure that Rosalie and Edward were sitting at opposite ends of the room.

Although, throughout the movie –with the cries of a man, and the shouts of apes and the harshness of gunshots—all Edward heard was a young boy's voice going, _"Leech."_


	5. Chapter 5

"Edward, do something to your hair."

Alice, who was practically flying around the house, making sure that everyone looked good, snapped the order. By her standards, of course, because other people's more normal standards were too low for her. Jasper kept sending waves of calm towards Rosalie, who was looking more annoyed by the second.

Edward reached a hand up to touch his hair, it wasn't too long, untamed, and Esme had run a hand through it earlier to attempt to make it lie flat. She had failed of course; Edward could have told her that, since Aro used to do the same thing without avail. Rosalie caught the action and smirked. Edward heard the retort in her mind.

_"I take back the 'mop' comment. It looks like a cross between a mop and a chicken, now."_ Edward rolled his eyes and Rosalie's smirk widened.

"You really need to create new insults," Edward bit out harshly.

Rosalie walked slightly closer, a finger resting lightly on his chest. "Fine. How about this? You look like an utter fool in those pants."

Edward's face hardened. "Say it in front of Alice and you shall have my respect."

Rosalie's eyes narrowed. "Very well." She turned sharply on her heel, calling out, "Alice." Alice heard from wherever she was in the house and appeared before them, not a hair out of place in the careful arrangement she had styled too early in the morning. "Alice, I just thought I'd share my opinion of Edward's pants."

Alice brightened, looking over at the tight pants that she had chosen for him –not those that she had also bought for Emmett, they were darker than that, thankfully. "Aren't they just wonderful? I think that they make his legs look longer myself, I mean, just look at him," she said, ending off in an almost appreciative tone that made Edward wince internally at the thoughts it provoked in his mind.

"They look horrid," Rosalie said sharply, and Jasper had to take a few steps forward, his hand resting lightly and carefully on Alice's shoulder, as Alice froze.

"Oh?" Alice asked, voice steady, measured, but icy nonetheless. Edward felt a slight twinge of pity for her, but the next second Alice's eyes glazed over slightly. It was a paling in the color of her irises that most would not even notice unless they were looking for it.

_Rosalie snapping at someone, upset with someone, her face contorted in sharp anger and frustration as Emmett pulled her away, his arms wrapped around her waist. Rosalie's shirt stained with the yellow of a drink that the girl before her had thrown on her. The girl cringing away, her face hardly seen behind a curtain of black hair. Rosalie's muscles tensing as she whirled away, hearing the whispers that followed her, laughter and mocking comments-_

Edward hid his smile with some difficulty.

"Why would you say such a thing?" Alice injected some shock and hurt into her voice. Edward guessed only he and Jasper knew were false, since the thoughts of Rosalie suggested guilt strong enough for Jasper to feel.

_"Does she have to look like such a kicked puppy? Fuck this, kicked puppies look happier. They're just pants, after all, she doesn't have to make such a big fuss over it-" An image of Alice as she was looking now, except with more obvious signs of displeasure-_

Rosalie shrugged. "It's the truth. Edward doesn't want to wear those. Anybody who looks at him could tell," Alice's head turned to look at him, but Rosalie continued before she could say a word. "Not that he would say anything to you, the boy lives in fear of you, for no reason that I can identify. He'll wear it, though."

Rosalie raised her hand and studied her nails in a bored fashion, leaning against the counter again.

Alice stood still for a few more moments –for effect, Edward thought—before turning away and meeting Edward's gaze. _"You don't have to wear it if you really don't want to."_She seemed to be sighing even in her mind, and Edward gave her a half-smile to show that he didn't mind too much.

No matter what she said, or thought, Edward knew that she would be unhappy if he decided to change.

Emmett came down the stairs in a leap, not seeming to sense the tension in the room.

"Dude, shouldn't we get going? I mean, you don't want'a be late on your first day do you? Even I wasn't late on my first day, bad impression and all that stuff," Emmett said, slinging an arm over Rosalie's shoulders, and the moment he felt the tension in her shoulders, Edward did as well.

_"Man, what did you people do to piss her off? You know how long it took for me to calm her down enough so that she promised not to cause to piss too many people off on your first day?"_ Emmett thought loudly, annoyed that they had so easily ruined his efforts of the past day and night.

Edward shrugged, noticing Jasper mirror the action. While he knew that Jasper hadn't heard Emmett's thoughts, Edward knew Jasper sympathized with Emmett's displeasure at their annoying his mate.

"Come on, what're we waiting for?" Emmett asked while looking around, feigning ignorance.

Rosalie sighed. "Your parents," she said. The term was sarcastic and with a tone that showed that she didn't think that they were real parents of any sort.

"They're following Edward to school," Alice said happily, as though the earlier incident hadn't occurred, and Edward saw Rosalie relax slightly. "To get him started and all that, since Edward here's never been to public school, he hasn't fully experienced it. He'd probably be lost."

"I would not," Edward said automatically.

"Yes you would," Alice said, and a glance at her mind revealed that no vision had showed Edward getting lost, but she continued to think it.

Edward shook his head. "I could easily find a layout of the school in somebody's mind."

"Are you certain that you want to read the minds of school students?" Emmett asked carefully. "I mean, the way they act makes you think that they're crazy, their minds must be real goners or something."

Rosalie nodded in agreement. "He's got a point, regardless of the fact that the majority of them are quite uninteresting, you can tell, one in a thousand of them are just plain freaks."

"You're being harsh," Alice protested.

"I do not believe that," Jasper shook his head. "A few of them have feelings that are quite," he frowned, "strange. Their emotions are quite inopportune for the given time, especially the women."

Edward shared a sympathetic look. He was perhaps the only one in the family who could fully understand what Jasper was going through. Their thoughts were just as strange as their feelings, but where Edward was not too affected by their thoughts, Jasper was affected by all their feelings.

"They're not all that bad," Alice said, although she didn't sound like she believed it herself.

"And how would you know that?" Rosalie asked. "It's not like you talk to them or anything. You smile at the guy who sits next to you during class and that's it. Hell, they don't even want to get to know us, they just want to get into our pants."

Alice didn't argue with Rosalie's logic.

"They do?" Emmett frowned, although his expression cleared after a brief moment of thought. "Well, they sure as fuck aren't going to act on it, I'd kill them," he said, voice practically a growl as his hand tightened around Rosalie, pulling her closer. She looked slightly annoyed with the gesture, although she made no move to step away or argue the intention. She knew that Emmett would do it without hesitation –he was her mate, even if they did not agree with it, they could not fight it without the Volturi coming down on them.

Although, even the Volturi might not dare to interfere with decisions involving mates.

Edward knew it well, when he had stayed with them, there were events. A vampire killing a group of humans in the middle of the afternoon for burning his mate. The Volturi had covered up the entire event, but no action was taken upon the vampire himself –the loss of his mate was punishment enough.

If Edward remembered correctly, the vampire had come to the Volturi asking for death. They had granted it. It was one of their few merciful acts over the years.

An exception to the rule, Aro had called it, shrugging carelessly.

"Edward, have you gotten your schoolbag?" Esme asked, bursting into the room with her fingers twisting into the ends of her shirt where the thread frayed, with Carlisle looking like the picture of calm when he walked in slowly after her, slightly amused with her worry, although he was smart enough not to show it.

"Of course, Esme," Edward said patiently, even though Esme had asked him that same question four time, five if he included this time, in the past few hours. It made all the more horrid that they didn't have to sleep, meaning that Esme fretted throughout the night, with Jasper's ocean of calm falling on her having effect for all of ten minutes before she begun again.

Throughout the entire night, _painfully_ long night.

"Are you sure you have all your books in place? I don't want you to have to miss out on anything," she continued, ignoring his response in favor of grabbing his bag and flipping through all the books that were in it. "Not that you need them, since you've already learned all of this at the Volterra from your friends, but you need to be prepared for this school, learn to adapt to the environment, not be noticed too much. You will be, of course, you're an exceptionally good-looking boy, Edward, anybody would be lucky to have you-" she looked up to spare him a smile before turning back down. "You'll need some brains if you're to survive though, survival skills, more so."

She stopped flipping through the books and set the bag down, her hands stilling over them as her mind went through a mental list of things Edward would need.

_"He has his clothes, at least, have to thank Alice for that one later. But, oh, that hair, well, I'll make do for now. I have to remember to get him to the hairdresser's later, or at least a stylist. Definitely a styling, necessary really. I have all his books, have stickers on them with his name, and the pictures are the cutest things ever, who doesn't love the Lion King, I should have Alice watch that instead of Tarzan later tonight. But I have to get him to manage his hair— the hair can wait, I guess, it's not like it can get much worse-"_

Edward pulled out from the influx of thoughts. Esme's mind was a muddle of events that had no logical sequence, whereas someone like Jasper had an order to his thoughts that made Edward feel slight relief.

"Esme," Carlisle murmured, steadying her with his hands on her shoulders. Esme started, before shaking her head and twisting out of his grasp.

_"Maybe if I let her cook later she'll calm down." A picture of Esme in an apron, practically flying through the kitchen, pulling out a tray of cookies from the oven that were half-burnt. "No, no, I'll have to eat the food eventually. Perhaps if I restricted what she could cook to just water-"_

Edward smiled. Esme, for all her passion with cooking and learning exactly how to cook different foods, had little natural talent with the baked goods. However, she was convinced that all mothers needed to know how to make cookies. Her persistence, if nothing else, Edward thought, was commendable.

"Esme? Shouldn't we be going?" Carlisle suggested.

Esme turned quickly. "Of course, come, hurry," she said, reaching out to grab her purse –the keys were placed directly next to the purse, so that Esme wouldn't miss them in her current state of frenzy, one that Carlisle was familiar with after the first four children.

Carlisle let Esme drive the Mercedes, whereas the rest of them had their own cars. Emmett and Rosalie went in Rosalie's BMW, mainly because she said that Emmett's jeep stunk of mutt. Alice and Jasper sped off in Alice's small yellow Porsche, and although he didn't remember ever owning it, Carlisle assured him with a quick thought that the silver Volvo was his after throwing him the keys. The necessity for six cars in one family –because there was an extra in the garage—Edward didn't understand, but he was teenage enough not to turn down a car.

Edward followed Alice for the journey, since he didn't know the exact location of the school, and smirked slightly at the realization that Alice was as fast a driver as him, if not more so.

It was nice to find that someone was.

Every time he tried above average speeds with Aro or Heidi, they started scolding and screaming respectively until he slowed down. It made little sense to him, since they could run faster than the speed of the car, and either way, they couldn't die by a crash or the like.

He parked smoothly, avoiding the students who stopped mid-step to look over at the car.

_"Damn that's a cool car. One of the Cullens, new one, so Stace wasn't lying. Wonder if he's hot, Stace said that Em said that he was, probably is, man, that's one hell of a car-" An image of his car, with him still seated inside it, a vague shape."_

Edward opened the door and stepped out, knowing that most of the people, if not all, were staring at him.

_"The new Cullen kid, he is so gorgeous." Edward in his current form, walking towards Alice and Jasper. "Wow, he the new Cullen? Way better than the emo kid and the bull guy." A short bark of laughter following the comment. "Now there's a gay guy if there ever was one. What a waste. Mike's probably going to fuck him as soon as he sees him." Edward and an unknown body against the classroom table. "Tight jeans, firm ass, not bad. I'd give him an 9.5, maybe just 9, needs to do something with his hair-"_

The thoughts were everywhere, forcing themselves onto him, and it was only years of practice that kept the flinch from his face. Jasper immediately moved closer, sensing his discomfort.

Edward wasn't used to this many thoughts. More accurately, he wasn't used to this many thoughts that were similarly loud and chaotic, whereas people and vampires at the Volterra had the sense to keep themselves silent, even in their minds.

He felt rather than saw the eyes on him, although he knew that if he turned his head, he would watch them watching him. These people seemed to think that it was their right to know him.

Intrusive was the word, both their thoughts and the people themselves.

"God, you're getting more attention than me," Rosalie said snarkily, hands on her hips as Emmett carried the white handbag for her, a slightly comical sight. Edward gave a half-smile, and the sounds of squeals and comments were thunderous.

_"Is this guy for real? What the fuck is this fag doing here anyway-"_ A boy, dark hair and angry eyes. Edward identified him easily in the crowd, surrounded by a group of women in scant outfits that were paying more attention to Edward than the boy.

"He's jealous, envious," Jasper muttered, eyes darkening with anger. While Jasper did not know Edward very well, he was a part of the family, and, as such, Jasper would protect him as much as he would anyone Rosalie or Emmett.

Esme and Carlisle walked in front of them towards the front doors, ignoring the whispers that followed them, too comfortable with them. Edward followed, keeping between Alice and Rosalie, with Jasper and Emmett a step behind them. They were surrounded him, as though it would provide a barrier between him and _them_.

_"You should've just joined the school with us, Edward, then you would've suffered this with us. Instead, you've got to go through the 'New Cullen' routine, and the 'New Student' one, and the whole 'Hot Student' thing that's obviously going on, and Alice is going to make sure that we follow you around as though we're lackies or some crap, and they don't even know us, I don't know why they'd think that they'd get to know you any better-"_

Edward tuned out Rosalie's rambling complaints, although he knew that Rosalie –dark thoughts aside—would snarl at anyone who said anything against him.

"Hello, I'm Esme Cullen, this is my son, Edward," Esme tugged him forward and Edward moved obediently, smiling at the receptionist, the Mrs. Linda Thomas whom he recognized from Alice's memories. Mrs. Thomas' eyes widened as she looked Edward up and down, and Edward had to resist the urge to take a step back.

_"He's a fine one, like tha' boy who all the girls fancy on TV today, the one in those Harry Potter things." A picture of a boy on a screen, brown hair falling into his face, a slight resemblance to Edward. "Don't remember this one, though, thought all the kids joined already-"_

The woman gave what was supposed to be an inviting smile, but came off more as one of unhidden curiosity. "'Course, Mrs. Cullen, how could we forget you? Whose this one, now?"

"Edward Cullen," Esme repeated, pulling out a few papers from her bag. "He's been living with relatives for the past few years, he's been having private studies in Italy under a scholarship," she explained, the lie coming off smooth, pitched slightly higher than it needed to be so that the people who loitered around them would overhear and the rumor would spread throughout the town, minimizing the need for explanation.

"Scholarship?" Mrs. Thomas said, barely looking down at the papers. "Well, you're a smart one, aren't you?" she drawled. _"Don't know what the kid's doin' here, rest of them haven't got two brain cells to rub together."_

"Yes, ma'am," Edward said politely, manners that Aro ingrained in him stopping him from slouching where he stood or snapping at the woman.

Mrs. Thomas blushed. "Now, don't go on with this ma'am business, you call me Linda, boy," she instructed fondly. _"Reminds me of that boy Matthew, lovely children, don't know why parents don't raise their kids to be more polite these days, all swearing and wearin' clothes that don't cover them proper, would 'a raised my child proper if I'd had one, I would."_

Edward's smile relaxed slightly, she was a good woman, resentful at not having children, having to make do with those she encountered at her job, but a good woman nonetheless.

Linda opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of papers, passing them to Esme. "You fill those up, Mrs. Cullen, while I get your boy's time table and everythin' ready. He got all his books, I hope?" she asked, and gave a satisfied sound at Edward's nod. "Good, good, some of these kids, don't do a thing in prep'ration before coming to school, don't know what they're thinking."

Rosalie snorted. _"I wonder if Esme would be more harsh than usual if I told this hag to shut up?"_

Edward gave her a warning glance and she gave a half-shrug, making to lean against the table before changing her mind and leaning against Emmett, who didn't struggle at all under the weight. If anything, he was more comfortable with Rosalie against him.

"So, Edward, dear," Linda said, handing him a few sheets of colored paper, "these are your classes, your first one is in ten minutes-"

"You're having Advanced Biology with me, Edward," Alice interrupted, looking at the timetable, while Jasper looked on over his shoulder. "I'll make sure that he gets to class on time, Linda," Alice said.

Linda frowned. "That's Mrs. Thomas to you, young lady," she said, and Edward grinned.

"Well, sor-ry," Alice said, not sounding very apologetic. Jasper quickly pulled her away from the table so that they stood slightly further away from the woman.

"I apologize for my daughter, she's just extremely excited about Edward joining her here," Carlisle said soothingly, with a smile that had probably charmed half the patients who had visited and their families as well. Carlisle had that effect on people though, and if Esme hadn't been busily penning down information on the papers Linda had given her, she'd have probably had the same effect.

"Where've you been, again?" Linda asked, directing the question at Edward.

"Oh," Edward heard the answer in Esme's mind. "I've been attending private schooling at the Volterra, my relatives there are wise, and they've taught me all that I might need to know."

"So why'd you come here?" Linda asked, her voice loud. She was feeding the rumor mills that the girls at the corner would turn. "Why not stay in dear ole Italy?"

Edward shrugged. "My family is here, I cannot be away from them for too long."

Linda smiled. "Mama's boy, are ya?"

"Actually," Rosalie said, "he's a Daddy's boy," she sneered. _Edward and Carlisle kissing, his hands fisted in Carlisle's blond hair, Carlisle pressing him against the wall. "Fuck." Edward moaning-_

"Rosalie," Edward snapped, more than a little disgusted by the thoughts.

Carlisle looked at Rosalie sharply. "Rosalie, I would be grateful if you left your brother alone."

"Of course, Carlisle," Rosalie simpered.

Linda's eyes moved between them, and Edward heard the question in her mind when Rosalie called Carlisle by his name instead of using 'Dad' or the like. He didn't bother explaining. It wasn't that unheard of, anyway. Edward sent Rosalie a long stare, and she stared back, lips twisting into a sneer. _"They're thinking it, you know, these kids. They think of sex all the time, they think of all of us having sex together, I can tell. And you can't honestly tell me that you've never thought of that?"_

"I haven't," Edward murmured, lips hardly moving, voice low such that only one with hearing like that of the vampires would be able to pick up the words. Carlisle frowned, a question in his eyes. "It's sick," he spat, and Carlisle's concern only grew.

_"What did she say?"_ Carlisle demanded.

Edward shook his head, as though looking around the room. "You don't want to know," he told Carlisle.

_"I do,"_ Alice piped up. Edward glanced over at her. _"It's got to be something good if it's got you this worked up, Jasper's tensing up, he says that Rosalie's thinking about sex, and you're disgusted, but there's something else that he's not telling me, so I'm going to guess that you kind of liked it too, which is why you're even more disgusted. And Rosalie's good at figuring out this sort of stuff, so she can probably tell that you liked it."_ Alice ended the flow of words in her mind, anticipatorily looking at Edward. "So, Edward, read anything new lately?" she asked, a normal enough question.

"Yes, actually," Edward answered pointedly, and the others smiled slightly, knowing that the conversation would have nothing to do with books. "It was absolutely disgusting, whole paragraphs with such explicit information that it might even make Uncle Caius cringe."

Carlisle let out a chuckle, presumably at the 'Uncle Caius' comment, for there was no doubt that Caius would feel insulted if he had heard the phrase. "Oh? It was that bad then? I'm guessing that it's one of the books that Rosalie lent you?"

Edward nodded. "It was, and I can only ask that you never lend me such a book again, Rosalie, I don't know how you got through the entire thing."

Rosalie let out a sound, annoyed at the fact that they were having this conversation, proud at the fact that they could have such conversations without the humans suspecting a thing, disgusted with the fact that Mrs. Thomas was listening in even though she was obviously not a part of it. "I thought that it was hot, and I'm sure that people here would agree with me. It's not my fault that you're a homophobic, Edward."

Alice's eyes widened, starting to grasp exactly what Rosalie must have been thinking towards Edward. "It was gay?"

"Very gay," Edward agreed. "And I'm not homophobic, but I don't appreciate incest," he said sharply.

Carlisle closed his eyes, and then glanced towards Edward, who reluctantly nodded. _"I see,"_ Carlisle thought. _"She was thinking about-"_

"They weren't even really related anyway," Rosalie rolled her eyes. "They guy was adopted, his Dad wasn't a Dad at all, and they were almost the same age and everything." She turned to Alice, who had noticed the exchange between Carlisle and Edward and guessed exactly who had been together in Rosalie's thoughts. "What do you think?" Rosalie asked, more of a demand.

"Of that relationship?" Alice asked skeptically. "I mean-"

"Must we have this conversation?" Jasper asked, looking paler than usual, which meant that he either felt ill or was blushing furiously. Both were possible. Emmett, on the other hand, was grinning, obviously amused.

"Could be hot," Emmett agreed with his mate. _"Sorry, Edward, but Rosalie's not going to give me none tonight if I don't agree with her."_ Jasper groaned, and Edward knew he was blushing now. As experienced as Jasper might have been, there were things that he wasn't entirely comfortable with, and this was something that gave even Carlisle pause.

"I don't think you should be reading such things, Rosalie," Carlisle said slowly. "As interesting as the thought might be, you must understand that most people would be disturbed by such a relationship. While neither Edward nor I are homophobic, as you put it, there's a difference between gays, and gays who are, well, related," he said clearly, looking at Rosalie.

Rosalie seemed unwilling to leave the topic, but Esme looked up then, moving between Edward and Carlisle to pass the papers to Mrs. Thomas. "There," Esme said, letting out a breath for pure effect. "We'd best be letting them all of to class so that they aren't late, right?"

Mrs. Thomas nodded, although she seemed to want to listen to the rest of the conversation. "Bye, Edward," she said, ignoring the rest of the 'children'. "You too, Mr. Cullen, Mrs. Cullen."

Esme nodded once, turning to hug Edward tightly.

"Have fun," she murmured. "And don't let Rosalie get to you," she said as she pulled back.

She had heard the conversation, and Edward felt his cheeks lighten, because, no matter how he lived, and the fact that wasn't actually related to Esme, he didn't need his_mother_ knowing that Rosalie had just imaged him and her _husband_ having sex.

It was strange and disturbing and a thought that he would rather never have to approach again.

Esme gave him a light peck on the cheek, while Carlisle stood further away carefully, before they turned and walked away.

"Come on," Rosalie snapped, all four of them waiting to accompany Edward to his first class. Edward smiled at the show of protectiveness, and Rosalie rolled her eyes. _"You are such a sap."_

Alice slipped her hand into his, Jasper silent and not objecting on the other side of her, and moved closer. "Don't worry, the idea of you and Carlisle is hot and all, but-"

"Alice," Edward said loudly, shocked.

Alice and Rosalie shared a look before they both burst out in laughter.

-|-

A few hours into school, Edward understood why he had never attended it before.

He couldn't even bother to identify exactly which class was, although the thoughts of the students around him were helpful with that. The girl who sat two tables before him was focused on the subject –math, a formula that Aro had told him about in detail because he had been alive during its creation, even known the original creator to some extent, because Aro made it a point to know everyone whom he thought would become someone.

The boy sitting at the table behind him was thinking about the girl three tables to his right and exactly what he wanted to do to her. Edward felt some pity, because the girl was thinking about the girl who sat in front of her with a similar line of thought.

_"I wonder if he's seeing anyone, I mean, Mike says that he's gay, but that's just disgusting, no, no, he has to have left a girlfriend in Italy. Italy. I wonder why he bothered coming to Forks, Italy is so much cooler, Forks is so boring. Nobody here does anything, God, I shouldn't have chosen to come here. But, he's so anti-social, can't he talk to us? Probably thinks we're just lowly humans, not that he's wrong, I mean, of all the days to wear drab clothes. I should've worn something nicer, less plain-"_

The thoughts were slightly familiar, a girl, new to the school. If Edward had heard the thoughts of the people around her correctly, she had joined perhaps the day before he himself had. He didn't care for her.

He didn't care for any of them.

Edward, as par Carlisle's teachings, didn't feed on humans. But simply because he didn't _eat_ them did not mean that he _liked_ them, if anything, all five of the Cullen 'children' went out of their way not to have to interact with them. To him, it wasn't hypocrisy of any sorts, he was just reducing the temptation that humans offered. It seemed fair enough to his mind.

Not all of them had the legendary control of Carlisle and Esme.

_"Maybe I can ask Jessica to lend me one of her shirts, I can change during recess, she always has extras. But, it's not like she's going to let me, she doesn't even like me. Well, I don't get why any of them like me, I'm not nearly as interesting as the Cullens."_ The girl sounded almost spiteful, and Edward turned his head slightly to look at her.

She was sitting at the desk directly next to his, and immediately blushed and averted her eyes when she caught his gaze.

_"Oh my God, he's actually looking at me. Edward Cullen is looking at me. Jessica is going to be so jealous. Oh God, oh God, is he still looking? If I turn and he is looking then he'll see me, but maybe he's not- Oh, but what if he is?"_

Edward turned away, and a second later, he felt the girl's eyes on him.

_"Oh. He's not looking."_ Disappointment, although why Edward didn't know. She was annoying, and, according to her own thoughts, boring. _"Well, at least he looked at me, I bet he never looked at Jessica."_

Edward made a mental note to look at this Jessica girl the next time he met her, the picture was clear, blond, slightly pretty, he knew the sort.

_"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up."_

Edward straightened in his seat.

This was a voice that he definitely recognized; one that he had thought of constantly; one that he had no right thinking of actually; one that he had had in his mind for long days. This voice had identified him, this voice Alice had pointed out easily by a scent, this voice belonging to a person none of them had actually met but had already had fixed mentalities about. This voice had spat the word that he was, taunting him almost.

_"Leech."_

That one word he remembered, every inflection in that one syllable he had agonized over, although he still wasn't sure exactly why.

He took a deep breath, an action that would seem normal enough to the humans around him, but one that had a purpose. Edward frowned slightly, his brows furrowing. He couldn't scent the boy. It was a very distinctive scent as well, not nearly as unpleasant as Alice and Rosalie and the rest of them had made it out to be. The boy was definitely not in the room.

_"Can this man not shut up? Honestly, does he really think that anybody here is actually paying attention to this stuff?"_ It took Edward effort to hide the smile that was growing on his face. He didn't even know where this boy was, or what he looked like, but he knew what he sounded like, and that was enough.

For now, anyway.

_"They're guys. The only girl here is Leah, and she's practically a guy too. They know all there is to know about sex, why they would think that sex education is even necessary is beyond me. We can't even have sex until we've Imprinted. Well, no, we can, and Quill probably will, but is it wrong to want to Imprint on someone first?"_

Edward knew something about Imprinting, as much as Aro and Caius had told him. It was something like mating, except more sudden, and he thought that mating was stronger a force. Although, Aro's position couldn't be completely trusted, he was one of the most biased people he knew.

_"This is so weird. Does he have to say 'sex' so many times? We know that we shouldn't have sex without protection, but can't you just say use protection? We know that you're talking about sex, already, you've been doing for an hour now- and, oh God, there's another hour to go. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up."_

Edward grinning, letting his head fall down as though he was studying his text. He didn't know why he bothered with the pretence, the other students already considered him weird for being a Cullen, he didn't think the insults could get much harsher.

_"Don't do it, man, don't do it, don't go there- And he goes there." A picture of a man, slightly nerdy, pushing his glasses up his nose as he held a banana in one hand. "Bring out the banana. It's like some crappy slogan or something. They'd probably use it on MTV. Bring out the banana."_ Edward snorted, and the girl next to him, the one who had been thinking about him, glanced over curiously.

_"Is there something on my dress?"_ The girl looked down at herself, and Edward allowed himself to feel contempt towards her and her ego, that if Edward did anything, she would have to be the cause of it.

_"He's probably never used his real banana in his life,"_ the boy thought snarkily. _Laughter, loud and unbidden._ Edward felt something curl in his stomach, a warmth of sorts except without any actual heat. _"He can't put on the condom, God, I knew it, he really hasn't used his banana." More laughter. The same man, struggling to fit a condom onto a banana, face red with both embarrassment and heat, sweat pooling at his temples. Laughter subsiding. "Aw man, the poor guy, Leah's gonna make sure that everyone hears about him."_

Edward grin faded into a smile, the boy was quite empathetic. He knew that if it were Rosalie, she would have only mocked the man further. Much like this Leah girl.

_"And he's got in on." A cheer, followed by light laughter. "Wonder what the point of that was, they taught us about all of this ages ago, Sam looked like he was going to be sick when he showed it to us. But he's never been part of the guys, always the Alpha."_

Edward picked up on the last word. By alpha, the boy did not merely mean the leader of a group of friends, he meant a pack of shape shifting wolves. Edward thought that he should be feeling more anger, more disgust, just _more_, but he didn't. Far from it.

_"Probably haven't told this guy though, all of them are going to be hell on him. Hmm, Quill looks like he's going to be taking a couple of those condoms for practice, wonder what this guy's reaction will be. Wait, no, Embry's already gotten those that fell of the table, is this guy that daft? Of course he's going to pocket a couple." A boy, tanned and lean and muscled, grinning at them as his pockets bulged with condom packets._

It reminded him of something Emmett might have done, had they the need for condoms besides not wanting to make a mess all over themselves. There was no possibility of their getting STDs, their venom ensured that, but sex, Emmett assured him, was cleaner with condoms.

Unless you want to make it special, Jasper had added thoughtfully, then, to feel a person fully, without the barrier of plastic, was more intimate. Edward had smiled, because he didn't think that Jasper had said something so utterly romantic before, and Alice had dragged him off shortly after.

That was years ago, though, the last time he had visited.

_Laughter, louder yet, ringing and strong. "I can't believe he dropped the damn banana, oh God, and then- Oh man, the mocking that awaits. Shit, he's fallen down- on the banana, I should really stop laughing, but, man, it's not everyone else isn't joining in, he fell on the banana."_

Edward felt laughter overtake him and started coughing to hide it, and although Alice sent him a strange look –he had no need to cough because he had no need to even breath—he only managed to subside it after a minute.

The girl next to him looked concerned, but Edward didn't say anything to her.

_An image of the bespectacled man on the floor, floundering to a stand, the stain of banana on the back of his pants. A classroom filled with laughter. "This is freaking classic, I don't think I've ever seen Leah laugh so much- Oh shit, Sam." Silence falling upon the same class as a man entered the room, fairly tall, eyes that were dark. But the man exuded power, demanded respect._

Alpha, Edward remembered. Although, not everyone there was a part of the pack. Edward wasn't sure how he knew the fact, but he did; he guessed that he had picked it up from the boy's thoughts.

_Sam helping the man straighten, instructing him towards the bathroom. The man stammering out words that were nonsensical before exiting the room. Sam looking them over, before shaking his head and letting out a slight smile of defeat. "I already taught you all this," Sam said. "He has. Now, why did we suffer that if people remember? Not that anybody could forget the picture of Sam holding a banana and trying to put on a condom, he was such a blushing virgin then. Still blushing now, not a virgin, probably-"_

Edward looked up sharply as the teacher called on him, asking him something that he didn't already here, although he gave the answer without thinking. The teacher frowned, suspicious –teachers knew when their students weren't paying attention, they always did—before sighing, giving up. He could sense a student like Edward, who knew too much while listening too little.

_"You should be paying more attention on your first day, Edward,"_ Alice chided. _"You aren't exactly making the best first impression, you know."_ Edward looked to his right and back, where Alice was looking at him with a frown, and he shrugged in response, smiling slightly at her. _"You're absolutely horrid,"_ she decided, with no heat in her words.

Edward turned back to the front, where the teacher continued, although the bell had already rung to signal the end of the class and most of the students were ignoring him in favor of exiting the classroom. Alice quickly walked over, while Edward took his time with the packing of his books.

"Who was it?" Alice asked.

Edward feigned ignorance. "Who was what?"

"You were listening in to someone, Edward," Alice said knowingly. "Now, who was it?"

Edward shrugged. "Nobody in particular," he said carelessly, slinging on his bag over his shoulders. He stood up, ignoring the girl who had been sitting next to him and was following him, and lowered his voice so that she couldn't overhear. "You know the mutts Rosalie was talking about?" he asked, not using another term because it might reveal too much.

"Yeah," Alice said guardedly, obviously not expecting the question.

"They don't have school here, do they?" he asked.

Alice shook her head. "Of course not, could you imagine the smell? Gods, Carlisle would have to let us switch schools. Rosalie's bitching alone would convince him," Alice said teasingly.

"What about my bitching?" Rosalie appeared next to them, Emmett next to her, as they moved towards the cafeteria for lunch. "Are you two gossiping about me without my knowledge?" she said, clucking her tongue disapprovingly and mockingly.

"Edward's just asking where the mutts go to school," Alice said.

"And you still haven't answered," Edward reminded her.

"They have a separate school," Jasper said, from where he stood next to Alice, although Edward didn't know how he managed to make his way there without Edward seeing and within a minute of class letting out, although Jasper's class was on the opposite end of the building. "On the other side of the border," he continued. "We try to minimize interaction between us, so we can't have schools in the same area. Not to mention the fact that I don't think either of us could survive with the other there."

"You're exaggerating," Edward argued.

Rosalie snorted. "No, he isn't for once. I don't think I'd be able to live near one of those things, it's sickening, it is," Rosalie said. Edward's mind flashed towards the girl he had heard about in his boy's mind. Leah, her name was. She would get along with Rosalie. Edward knew it.

If they could get past their inherent differences, that was.

"So, they don't go to school anywhere near here?" Edward clarified.

"Nope," Alice confirmed, "Far, far away, just like we like it. Why're you so curious anyways?"

Edward shook his head. "No reason," he murmured. It wasn't possible. He shouldn't be able to hear the thoughts of somebody who was that far away. Especially when he hadn't ever met the boy in question, he had only ever scented him. His boy was a mystery.

Rosalie opened the door to the cafeteria, and she had hardly taken two steps in before the girl who had been sitting next to Edward in class walked into her, the milkshake that had been in her hand pouring over Rosalie's shirt. Rosalie froze, before her face contorted in anger as she let out a primal scream.

The girl ducked her face, hair falling over it. Only then did Edward connect her to the girl in Alice's vision.

"You little bitch," Rosalie vented, and Emmett moved forward towards his mate, worry in his face, "You would dare pour a drink on me? I'll fucking kill you-" Emmett's hands surrounded Rosalie's waist as he pulled her back, and while it looked easy enough to the humans present, Edward knew that he was not alone in noticing the concentration in Emmett's face and the muscles bunching in Rosalie's arms.

The yellow stain, though, made him hide a smile quickly –it was similar to the one he had seen in his boy's mind—although Jasper looked at him and Edward knew that he had felt the emotion. Emmett pulled Rosalie out, heading towards their cars, because the possibility of Rosalie continuing school in this state was next to nothing. It was too large a risk to take.

Then he froze, because since when had he started referring to the boy as _his_?


	6. Chapter 6

Alice was distressed, and, more worryingly, trying to hide it.

She kept giving Edward slanting looks when she thought that his attention was elsewhere. It could, of course, be because Edward kept smiling to himself – completely rational considering the fact that every time he even thought of the word 'banana', he felt amused, secretly so, and that no one else knew made it even better if anything. As though the boy and his thoughts were Edward's alone.

"Edward," Jasper said patiently when Edward grinned again.

They were lying haphazardly across the couch, Alice's head on Jasper's lap, Jasper's head on the head of the couch, Alice's feet on somewhere on Edward's stomach, while Edward himself had contorted himself to fill up the space that was left on the couch.

"Yeah?" he asked lazily.

"You're extremely happy today," Jasper said steadily, an observation.

Edward didn't look at him, his grin brightening. "It's a good day. If we were human, we would be eating fruits."

Alice looked unconvinced. "We would?"

"Yes, we would be eating good fruits. Apples. Oranges. Bananas. Grapes-"

"We know our fruits, Edward," Alice cut in. "Why this sudden interest in fruits? Or food in general, you've never been one to be fascinated with human food. That's Esme's job."

Edward shrugged, taking in an unnecessary breath. "No particular reason. But humans and their habits-"

"Have absolutely no flow of logic," Jasper said. "They decide to do the most strange of things at the most inopportune times, it makes no sense." And Jasper liked sense, Edward added mentally. "Most of them have absolutely no order in their lives, it's all 'living in the present' and other frivolous sayings that they could not possibly understand the meaning of, with lives as short as theirs are."

"Wouldn't it be that because their lives are so short that they decide to live in the moment?" Edward countered. "After all, if you know that your average lifespan is all of seventy-nine years, then would you not be more likely to not want to anticipate the future or reflect on the past too heavily? Not to mention the fact that humans are such fragile creatures; one accident, one strike of lightning, one fall," Edward shrugged, "death is such an easy end for them."

Jasper thought for a minute before nodding slowly. "I see where you are coming from, but at the same time, it may be argued that without anticipating the future or reflecting on the past, the present is quite worthless to live."

"That is true as well," Edward acceded. "Then again-"

"Does it really matter?" Alice interjected. "Why are we studying human behavior again?"

"Humans are interesting creatures to cohabitate with. Were Aro here, he would take delight in studying their ways; they are much like vampires in their protectiveness of one another. The women do not even visit the washroom alone. And the men, such rich characters, are they usually so," he sought for a word.

"Loud?" Jasper offered.

"Boisterous," Edward amended. "Even those who are not are."

Alice frowned. "That makes no sense."

"Yes, it does, actually," Edward straightened slightly, Alice's feet slipping to hit his arms before he repositioned them across his stomach. "You have those men in those large shirts, baggy pants, the ones who play human sports much like Emmett would-"

"Jocks," Alice identified easily, as though they were playing a game of 'Guess the human clique'. In a way, they were. Edward held with Heidi at moments that same contest. Except, with that setting, the games leaned towards 'Guess which human Caius decides to use first' or 'Guess what Aro did three hundred years ago'.

"And, you have those skinnier men, wearing ill-fitting shirts and pants that even I can tell are suitably out of style, staying out of the way, reading their books with thick glasses while thinking of how to get the blonde girl at the next table to kiss them-"

"Geeks," Alice said. "And who wanted which blondie?"

"The one with the brown hair, quite shy, stays out of the way of everybody. He was thinking quite," Edward winced inwardly, "explicit thoughts about the blond girl."

Alice laughed. "Anything else we should know about the resident nerds?"

"I thought they were geeks?" Edward asked, slightly confused with the change in term.

"Same difference," Alice waved a hand.

Edward's frown deepened. "That makes no sense."

"I would advise you not think too hard about it," Jasper said smoothly. "It's virtually impossible to understand some of the sayings these humans think of."

"They didn't use them at the Volterra," Edward shrugged in excuse. "Also, the boy next to him, extremely bright red hair, freckles across his face, lean body, pale, stays out of the sun, with a number of brothers older than him?"

Alice nodded. "His brothers are nothing like him. I don't know what they did to him when he was born."

"Well, he's been thinking of those brothers," Edward glanced up at Jasper. "And I'm guessing he feels guilty for thinking about them the way he is?"

Jasper nodded in agreement. "It's not," he paused, before shaking his head. "It's not completely abnormal; he's not the first to think like that. Alice is right, his brothers are-"

"Hot," Alice supplied as Jasper faltered.

"Exactly," Jasper said. "There are few who don't start feeling lust after meeting them, a few of them have it followed by guilt –why, I am not sure, but they do—and others are free with their emotions."

"But they're his brothers," Edward said, disturbed.

It struck a familiar chord, with Jane and Alec, a relationship that he didn't want to begin delving into; too many intricacies, familial, and on a far more intimate level than any two siblings had a right to. At the Volterra, they were far more accepting. As long as both partners in the relationship were vampires, it was to be accepted. Matters like gender or prior relationships were fickle, unimportant to Aro, whereas Marcus couldn't care less, and Caius just thought crudely and loudly.

Jasper shrugged. "He's only just begun experiencing these feelings."

"Probably gay," Alice added, "and his brothers are the closest people he has, so he uses them. Once he's seen a little more of the world, he'll probably go off with someone else." Alice's eyes glazed over, and Edward didn't bother looking at her vision, since she'd tell them either way. "Or maybe not," she said.

Jasper looked down at her and asked, "One of his brothers reciprocates his feelings?" His tone was skeptical, a feeling Edward could understand.

"One of them will do something about it," she said. "But, it happens a lot, a brother helping another brother through a gay crisis. Eventually, most of them part," Alice sounded like she had been through the situation far too often. "Although, it's impossible to tell. He's close to his eldest brother, he's the gay one."

"How does he look like?" Edward asked curiously, and Alice thought of the boy in question.

_Hair as red as that of his younger brother. Slightly taller, more heavily muscled, a tattoo crawling up his left arm to disappear under the thin shirt that covered him. A disarming smile, charming attitude. The man –for he was definitely no boy—walking over to a woman, helping her. Earning the trust of those around him with relative ease, even with a cigarette hanging from his lips-_

He pulled away, he had seen enough of the man, he knew what his sort were like.

"He will not stay with his brother," Edward said decisively.

Alice snorted. "He might surprise you, you know."

"Well, he can't surprise you, which means that he won't be surprising me any time soon either," Edward said firmly. Alice's mind suddenly burst with music, loud and overwhelming all her other thoughts. Edward instinctively leant back. "Stop that," he ordered.

The music became quieter, but still ran through her mind, as though she was making a conscious effort to think of it. Edward frowned at her. He knew the signs.

She was hiding something from him.

"What is it?" Edward asked, not needing to clarify.

Alice bit her lower lip, looking up at Jasper, who kept his mind carefully soft, thinking of everything and everyone but Alice and whatever it was that she was hiding from him. "Nothing," Alice said, blatantly lying.

"Alice," Edward warned, he could find out if he wanted to, but that was an intrusion of her mind. It was something that she might feel almost physically in her mind, as though she were crazy. And after the years she had spent at the asylum, Edward wouldn't do that to her.

Alice shook her head. "I don't want you to know, so leave it alone for now, okay? I'll tell you if it's important."

There wasn't much of a choice in the matter. Edward simply did not have the ability to turn down the gentle pleading of Alice's eyes. He didn't think anyone could.

"Fine," Edward said sharply. "But tell me soon, if it's about me, I think I deserve to know."

"How do you know it has anything to do with you?" Alice asked, but her tone was teasing, her mind more relaxed –she knew Edward would not search for the information without permission.

"If it wasn't, you would tell me," Edward said smoothly.

Alice grinned. "Point taken."

The sound of something breaking from Rosalie and Emmett's room made their gazes jerk upwards. Jasper's brow rose at the noise; the shift in emotions. Jasper had been growing more comfortable with the emotions of the couple over the past years. Edward thought that it was a skill Jasper had learned out of pure necessity, especially since Emmett and Rosalie seemed to do nothing but remain in their room. Exactly _what_ they did in their rooms Edward didn't ponder upon, though.

"Esme did say she'd rather have them do," Edward smirked, "things when she and Carlisle aren't home."

Alice scrounged up her nose in displeasure. "It's disgusting," she said frankly. Edward hit her arm, none too gently, and she dug her foot into his stomach, not that either of them felt the pain. "You don't think so?" she challenged.

Edward didn't look at her as he answered. "The Volturi members did strange things and, this- well, it's not particularly out of the ordinary, less so for humans, they enjoyed pain. Caius loved it; he used to do it frequently, loudly."

Loudly, of course, meaning both in the level of noise that Caius and whoever he was with made, and the loudness of their thoughts.

Alice had a strange expression, somewhere between disgust –if Edward didn't know her he would say that she was almost impressed—with a tinge of awe at the casual mentions Edward made of the Volturi and their habits. It was one thing to know that Edward spent time with the Volturi, another to acknowledge it so frankly.

"Well, it's still not," Alice hesitated, but the word sounded in her mind, high and clear, _"normal."_

Normality was a strange concept to them, all of them.

Especially them, the Volturi would think, being vegetarian vampires.

"Yeah, but they've gotten used to it, and I can't exactly argue years of ingrained mannerisms, can I?" Edward challenged.

"Can't you?" Alice looked upset, maybe worried, but Edward brushed that off –Alice had nothing to be worried about.

"I don't want to try, Alice. They don't make me change my eating habits, it would be impolite not to extend the same courtesy to them," Edward said formally.

Alice snorted. "It's not the same thing and you know it."

Edward was losing thread of exactly what they were talking about now. He guessed that it had to do with more than what the Volturi got on with in bed. Something bigger than that, something that involved them.

The catastrophic wailing of music started again in Alice's head.

Edward winced, and it became quieter as Alice took notice. "And you are definite that whatever it is that you are hiding isn't important?" Edward asked somewhat suspiciously. Alice shook her head but didn't deny the claim any further.

_"Don't, Edward, leave it be."_ Jasper's comment. He was too kind to say anything aloud, but protectiveness of his mate insisted that it had to be said. Edward gave a short nod that Alice didn't notice before burrowing his body deeper into the cushion. He wasn't cold, but he liked to think that he could feel the warmth of the friction against his body.

"So," Alice broke the silence; she had never been one to appreciate such things. "Why did you bring up fruits anyway?"

Edward grinned at the memory. "Just something I picked up."

"Rude, much?" Alice asked, although it wasn't biting. "Any clue who it was?"

She would know, more so than anyone else, that Edward might not be able to identify exactly who he was hearing. His powers were heightened enough to hear too many people, all at once, differentiating them was a hassle that he didn't often bother himself with.

"Some," Edward answered vaguely.

Alice's brow rose. "That sounds like you're keeping something from us, Edward, and you would never do that, would you?" Alice teased, although there was an undertone of seriousness in her voice.

"I only have some idea," Edward repeated sincerely. "I do not have a name or a face, just thoughts."

Alice frowned, but sensing no dishonesty in his words calmed. Although, that might have had a little to do with Jasper's presence next to her. "Do you want a change of topic now?" she asked plaintively.

Edward grinned, nodding. "Please and thank you."

Alice brightened. "Have you watched Sinbad before, Edward?"

Edward glanced at Jasper for confirmation to his guess. Jasper nodded, _"DreamWorks Animation, Alice only just started on it. Something about a pit."_

"No, I don't think I have," Edward answered smoothly.

Alice grinned. "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, with Brad Pitt voicing Sinbad."

Edward nodded –the pit was a person. "I am to assume that we have the DVD?"

Alice frowned. "Of course we do, what do you take me for? Anyway," she shook her head, "it's not much like the real Sinbad stories, which I'm going to assume that you know-"

"I do, Alice, they did want us to learn at the Volterra, you know," Edward said.

"Well, it won't be much help to have all this background knowledge when the movie itself is almost nothing like the stories. But, yeah, I guess people like you would like making fun of the fact that it changes and all that," she said, waving a hand lazily in his direction. "No offense intended, but you're the sort of guy who likes to mock things, so I think you'd really like it."

Edward blinked. "I don't mock things."

Jasper snorted, and there was another crash from the room above them. A second later, Rosalie appeared before them, and Edward let out a noise somewhere between a groan and gag. "Please put some clothes on."

She was wearing an unbuttoned shirt of Emmett's that hung off her without any pants, her panties thin and a dark red that could be clearly seen through the white fabric of the large shirt. Rosalie rolled her eyes, hands on her hips. "I criticize. Constructively, but that's what I do. You mock, Edward, don't bother trying to deny it."

And then she disappeared again, the door slamming shut loudly and definitively, and Edward didn't really want to consider what they were getting up to in the room.

"I don't," Edward said after a moment of somewhat stupefied silence.

"Oh?" Alice scoffed. "Then when you made fun of Emmett's outfit?"

"In my defense it was worse than the usual ones that Rosalie buys for him," Edward argued.

"Then how about that boy from the table over, the one with the girl who hit Rosalie? You keep making fun of him," Jasper pointed out.

"He was an utter geek," Edward said quickly.

"He was not," Alice protested. "He seemed like a lovely boy."

Edward let out a laugh. "'Lovely boy' is what people say when they can't think of anything nice to say."

"It is not-"

"It is too-"

"Is not-"

Jasper cleared his throat. "If either of you continue with that inane line of argumentation," he trailed off warningly, and Edward and Alice shared a glance before falling silent. Jasper looked between the two before nodding. "Good."

"Well, there was that time you started insulting the girl herself, the one who got Rosalie upset," Alice paused, and then looked toward the stairs, as though waiting for Rosalie to appear, and when no one did she continued. Before she could, though, Emmett appeared.

Jasper cringed. "Now, even Rosalie was better," he said, indicating the tiny briefs that were the only piece of clothing to cover Emmett besides his rainbow-colored ankle socks.

Emmett shrugged. "Rose wanted me to come and tell you that that girl should jump off a cliff and die."

_"I wonder if I could get her to cliff-dive and have her hit the rocks?"_

Edward grinned lightly, remembering the boy's words when they'd first met –or when he'd first heard the boy, anyway. It seemed that Rosalie and he were alike in their ways of imagining death for the girl.

Alice sniffed. "Is that it?"

"Er-" Emmett held a finger, and then ran off, with the sound of furious speaking coming from the level above them, before he reappeared. "Oh, and that if she somehow lives, Rose will take it upon herself to rip the girl limb from limb so that you wouldn't even be able to collect her remains in a bowl for the wolves to eat." He shrugged. "That's it." He made to turn away, and then paused and turned back. "And, Ed? You mock a lot. Honest. You do it to me all the time."

He ran away before Edward could argue the comment.

Edward looked at the smirking faces of Alice and Jasper and sighed. "I'm not going to win this one, am I?"

"Nope, so it'd be best if you gave up now," Alice advised.

Edward followed.

-|-

_"It's a good day. It's a good day. It's a good day."_

Edward opened his eyes, studying the crack in the ceiling. His boy was back. He hadn't even realized that it was the morning until the words had appeared in his mind. He listened carefully, and as though his boy had felt the action, the strange chant continued. _"It's a good day. It's a good day."_ A soft smile flitted across his face, and Edward wondered what could have brought about this sudden positive mindset on what a good day it was.

He hadn't even met his boy, but he could tell that he wasn't the most positive of people.

_"It doesn't matter that I have to go shopping today, it doesn't matter that I have to go shopping with Bella today. It doesn't matter that Seth is already pounding at the door like a bloody-"_ The flow of thought stopped abruptly mid-line, and Edward waited patiently and, obediently almost, the boy continued. _"Can't knock at the door now,"_ came the slightly smug thought, followed by rapid images of a boy being thrown bodily out of the window. Edward felt a brief flash of something -maybe worry, although why he would be worried for a stranger was beyond him- before the shape of the boy morphed into that of a wolf.

Edward shut his eyes and mind.

There were no more thoughts running through his head except for his own.

He knew, logically, about the shape-shifters. Alice had told him enough, and the name itself was telling about their nature and what the creatures were and what they did. But, it was one thing to know a fact, as Aro used to tell him, and another to watch it.

Of course, Aro had been referring to the consumption of humans by the Volturi members. Watching a man change into a wolf, Edward thought, was similar. Aro might even have appreciated the irony.

The door was slammed open, footsteps that could only be that of Emmett's making their way up the stairs and towards his room. Edward did not move; Emmett could walk towards him if it was of any real importance. Emmett did.

"Ed, you've got to come with us next time, man," Emmett said, falling onto the couch, and Edward pulled his legs towards him before they could be crushed by the force of Emmett's weight. "I know you just ate and all, but, seriously, you don't have to drink; just come and hunt with us already."

Edward gave a small half-smile. Emmett had hunted over the weekend, the other members of the Coven following him. He had been invited, of course, but he had turned them down politely. He had drunk more than his fill before moving to the area; Aro had been one who believed firmly in gluttony and the pleasures it wrought. In his words, vampires had to be gluttons - the amount they ate had to be proportionate to the length of the lives that they led. It was, naturally, nothing sensible, but Edward had only nodded when Aro had first told him. Politeness went a long way, from the heads of the Volturi to the humans who served him food that he didn't eat in the school canteen.

"What did you eat?" Edward asked disinterestedly.

Emmett didn't seem to notice his tone, grinning; his eyes had darkened, Edward felt slightly queasiness at the sight, although he knew not why. Logically, he knew Emmett fed much like all other vampires. But the man he had grown to know over the past weeks, he was far too- _"child-like," Rosalie said, looking at the three of them, protectively hovering over Emmett's large frame, an almost comical sight._ Edward remembered his first encounter of the vampire. The silence that had impregnated the moment Edward remembered with the most clarity; the doubt in Rosalie's and protectiveness and something he only later realized was concern - it seemed out of place with her figure.

It still did, Edward thought after a pause. Only with Emmett did it seem natural. Only ever with Emmett.

"Deer, good deer, really good deer," Emmett said simplistically. "Big too, not too big that we couldn't eat them proper, just the right size." Not that Edward had any clue as to what the right size of a deer would be. "And, fuck, did it taste sweet." Emmett didn't bother to continue with that point; no vampire could ever properly explain what the taste of blood was like. It was unique to each vampire, Aro had learned after comparing the tastes of a set of triplets with Caius and Jane.

It was grand to a fault. Far too much -too many fractions, too many flavors, too much taste- to explain.

An explanation would never be adequate, he knew, and Emmett did too.

"And we had a bear too, but that was for breakfast," Emmett continued. _A bear being pounced on by two three individuals, flashes of darker blacks and browns with the bright glitter of blond before the finality of red covering all._ "Good exercise after that." _Forests, everywhere, rushing by them in a mesh of colors and patterns and figments that left no imprint on their persons, too much to take into consideration and identify. Everything narrowed to pure feeling and the blood running through your body; blood that was not yours to begin with._

Edward remembered the feeling.

It had been a while though.

He almost regretted the decision of not joining the others in their little escapade. It might have been more- _more_. He shared a knowing glance with Emmett, who only nodded slightly in understanding.

"Don't worry, man," Emmett said, "you can join us next time. We'll probably go back next week, then we won't go back for a while. Too suspicious for the folks around here. They're kind of-"

"They're not 'kind of' anything. They're nosy asses who don't know how to remain in that little group that they belong." Rosalie's form appeared in the doorway, and Emmett brightened visibly, a larger grin covering his face, the glint in his eyes darkening yet further at the sight of the lithe figure. Rosalie smirked. "I came to collect Emmett," she said, crooking a finger. The ever-pliable puppet, Emmett moved towards her, and Rosalie didn't bother with a good-bye before she walked towards their room.

"Don't worry," Alice's voice chirped from somewhere, and it took Edward a moment to place her at the windowsill,

"They're always like this after hunt. Worse than their usual. It'll last about two days before it wears off. Esme doesn't let them skip school, but they usually skip a couple of lessons to play around in one of the empty classrooms." She moved lightly towards him, dropping into the empty spot that Emmett had left but curling so that she was resting slightly on Edward's bent legs. "Once, this guy caught them in the science lab, and he almost blew something, and it wasn't a chemical, if you know what I mean." Then she laughed at her own joke.

Alone.

Edward quirked a brow. Alice rolled her eyes. "You guys are all the same; nobody laughs at my jokes anymore," she said, her voice pitching towards a whine.

"Where's Jasper?" he asked, distracting her.

Alice took it for what it was and allowed him to change the topic. "Helping Carlisle with something. Or maybe Esme. Someone. With something," she said with clarity, waving a hand. Then she sighed heavily, resting her –still easily ignored—weight on him.

Edward stayed carefully silent.

Alice sighed again, even louder.

Edward didn't say a word.

He knew what Alice was doing. After all, vampires didn't need to breathe, much less sigh, so if Alice was sighing, it was a sure sign that Something Was Up and that she wanted to volunteer the information. She wanted Edward to ask. Edward almost smirked, but stopped himself from actually performing the action.

Caius had done this, baiting him until he snapped. He had had years of practice with the other vampire, and as strong a spirit was Alice was, she was still worse than Caius at his worst.

_"Ask me already, Edward, we both know that you want to,"_ Alice sing-songed in her head, moving her head in tune with the silent beat. _"Go on, just one word, you can do it,"_she said encouragingly –patronizingly—and Edward gave her a half-hearted glare.

She sighed again, longer this time.

Edward made sure that his eyes were turned towards the side of Alice's head, a little off, fixated on a spot on the wall. He frowned at the paling yellow; he needed to re-paint his room - it was beginning to look positively filthy. Suddenly, he shook his head sharply. Years at the Volterra, with its stone walls and rich carpets had created expectations for better things for him. Newer things.

Aro would be proud. Caius would be disappointed.

He made a pointed note not to mention it to anyone - he wasn't sure which reaction he feared more.

Alice made a sound from deep in her throat, annoyed and willing to show it. Edward looked at her calmly. "Would you like a cough-drop, Alice?" he quoted from that book she had read so faithfully at some point. It had been beyond frustrating when she had gone through that particular phase of her life, and he knew that the 'Disney' phase she was experiencing wasn't going to be any less so.

"Forget it," Alice rolled her eyes. She changed the topic abruptly. "Did I ever tell you how Jasper and I met?"

Edward frowned. "Alice," he said patiently. "Even if you hadn't told me about it, you have thought it at least. I know the story, the cafe, the visions, you waiting, him going to the place, all of you'll being really sweet and fairy-tale-like in general."

Alice smiled, already happier at the memory. "Well, do you know what it was like before I found Jasper?"

Edward shrugged. "Difficult?" he ventured a guess.

Alice nodded slowly. "Difficult, yeah, it was difficult. But, you know, Ed," he winced at the nickname but didn't speak against it, "that anticipation, knowing that he was out there and not being able to go to him -because my visions are right, they're never completely wrong, and I knew I'd only meet him in that place and that it could only happen in that way- I had to wait. I kept waiting, for absolutely ages-"

"I think you're exaggerating there-" Edward interrupted.

Alice shook her head sharply. "No. He was my mate, Edward," she emphasized. "And, well," she softened, "not being with him- It's like-" she faltered. "It's like being in a pool and knowing that you're going to drown and seeing the float above you but knowing you have to sit still and not do anything to save yourself. Or, it's like being in a desert and knowing that there's water just a little away but not being able to get it because it has to get to you instead of the other way around-"

Edward's brows furrowed. "Alice, you're making no sense."

Alice let out a short laugh, harsher than her usual merriness. "Yes, yes I am, you don't know it yet, but I'm making all the sense in the world and I don't know how to tell you-"

"I do not understand."

Alice sighed, falling heavily against him, back slumped. "You're right. I'm not making any sense. But, some day, I will, and maybe then you'll see what I'm talking about."

Edward cocked his head and look at her. "Does this have anything to do with those visions you've been keeping from me?"

Alice jerked her head upwards, the tendons of her neck a darker color than the paleness of her skin. "If I've been keeping them from you, how do you know about them?" she asked in a voice too controlled for her state.

"I don't know what you're hiding, but I do know that you're hiding something. It's almost as if-" he frowned, trying to put words to the feeling, "It's almost as if I know that something is missing, a piece of information or knowledge. It is strange, and my mind can recognize that now. I mean, it should, considering how long I've had this ability."

Alice laughed softly, calming slightly. "Yeah, you're old," she drawled out the last word and Edward felt the urge to roll his eyes or perform some other immature act in response.

"Why the sudden change in topic?" he questioned.

Alice shook her head. "Like I said, you wouldn't get it if I told you now."

"Alice, if I wouldn't get it, and you knew it, why ever did you decide to tell me in the first place?" he asked curiously, without a tone of blame.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I can't imagine what I was thinking."

"Nothing, as usual."

Jasper walked in, sitting next to Alice, automatically pulling her closer to his body. It wasn't an act of jealousy, more of an unconscious gesture that he couldn't stop himself from doing. He looked over her at Edward.

_"You trouble her, stop asking questions."_

"She started it," Edward stopped himself from saying.

_"Someday, you will understand, Edward, and at that point, you come and start asking questions,"_ Jasper said, confident in that the day would come; that Edward would ask Alice for advice; that whatever the visions Alice had been having would come to fruition.

Edward locked his gaze with Jasper's, and then, watching the shade of Jasper's eyes flicker to mirror his feelings, nodded slowly. Jasper relaxed. This wasn't anger, either, it was more of concern for his mate, even if the person causing it was her brother - if not by blood, then by the bonds of family and vampirism, if there were such things in existence.

Alice looked up abruptly. "Oh-oh," she said, staring at the doorway.

Edward hardly had the chance to close his eyes before there was a loud crash -like too many bowling balls hitting the floor at once- and Emmett was flying through the door.

He groaned pitifully, and Edward hardly caught the flash of movement before Rosalie was standing on him, looking down at him, wearing her pants and a bra, her shirt thrown off elsewhere. "-and this will teach you not to never," she enunciated the word and paused for effect before continuing, "pay attention to someone else instead of me, got it?"

Emmett nodded stiffly, and Rosalie gave him one last glare before walking away.

Emmett leaned himself up on his forearms, watching Rosalie's swaying body as she moved, before sighing and dropping onto the floor again, a slightly dopey grin on his face. "Isn't she fucking gorgeous?" he asked rhetorically, before shaking his head. "Just perfect."

Alice snorted. "Freak."

And then she ran away before Emmett could reach her. Jasper stood, looking at him for a moment before following the chaotic noises the two made. He turned back. "You do realize that they love each other, do you not?" he asked, almost a challenge.

"Rosalie and Emmett?" Edward clarified, although he already heard the answer in Jasper's mind.

He shrugged. "I don't think anyone could miss it if they wanted to."

Jasper nodded. "Then you understand, then?"

Edward frowned. "Understand what?"

Jasper hesitated.

Edward pressed, allowing his frustration to seep through, knowing Jasper would sense that if nothing else.

"You understand that for certain relationships, such animosity is-" Jasper thought about a word, the different options flying through his mind, although Edward picked up on,_"wanted- desired- they like it- they love it- the two of them are different, special- couples like this, they are rare- to be treasured-"_ before he settled on, "necessary."

The word seemed stark compared to the alternatives.

Jasper repeated, "It is necessary. You understand that?"

Edward shook his head. "I think those two should bicker less over meaningless issues, but I do think it would be impossible. Rosalie enjoys picking fights; she enjoys what follows. And Emmett could never deny her anything she wanted. It's not exactly the foundation of a healthy relationship but," he shrugged, "we take what we can and where we can have it."

"Beggars can't be choosers?" Jasper guessed.

"Not exactly," Edward denied. "More so that for people," _"creatures"_ he did not say, "like ourselves, our mates, we don't choose them. You should know that better than most. After all, it isn't as if you choose who you fall in love with, correct?"

He would have blushed if he could. He wasn't accustomed to having such conversations with anyone, much less Jasper. Although, thinking back, he could see why Jasper was the appropriate person to have such conversations with – he was the most empathetic of their family, with the exceptions of their parents.

Somehow, Edward thought that he would be having a similar talk with them soon, as well.

As it was, he felt his cheeks lightening in color.

Jasper smiled softly. "You are quite the romantic, aren't you, Edward?"

Edward opened his head to protest, but Jasper gave a laugh –not mocking, not judgmental—and grinned. "It's not a bad thing, women like romantic men," he paused and then continued, more slowly. "Some men do too."

Edward felt some surprise enter his face at the comment, but he didn't deny the statement. "Aro enjoyed the occasional romantic, someone to woo him, bring him for dinner."

"That wasn't what I was referring to," Jasper said, although he didn't seem to be blaming Edward for the interpretation either. "But, leave it, I must attend to Alice; she's wearing a new dress and if anything happens to it-"

"You don't need to say anything more," Edward grinned, imagining Alice's response.

Jasper gave a short bow before exiting the room, leaving Edward to stretch on the couch and assume his earlier position. Even as he closed his eyes –not to sleep, rather, just rest for his body—he could hear the voice; _"It's a good day."_

He smiled to himself, it was.

A/N: I know that this is shorter than my usual chapters, and I am **so** sorry for the dreadfully long wait it took with this one. I promise that the next will be longer, and that I won't take so long to submit it.


	7. Chapter 7

Edward nodded at the small human girl that Rosalie had given a thrashing earlier, picking up her name amongst the thoughts of the on-lookers. Bella. He felt pity for her, since he knew Rosalie could and would hold a grudge.

The girl blushed and ducked her face. _"Why does he keep looking at me? Does he like me, no, well, he could, I hope he does-"_

He ignored the continuing rant. Nobody from his family was in this class, Arts, he wasn't sure why he had chosen this subject, aside from the fact that the Volturi enjoyed it and he had learnt enough from them to ace it without even trying. As though trying to prove the point, the teacher took out 'Romeo and Juliet' and gave instructions that he followed without properly processing them. He had practically memorized the book, reading it again and again under Aro's orders.

_"This sucks."_

He agreed with the voice, nodding slightly, before realizing just which voice it was: his boy's.

He straightened, it had been a while. Two days, but it felt longer, far longer. Jasper had been calming him, while Alice gave these annoyingly knowing looks, which were quite disconcerting in their similarity to Jane's gazes at points. Esme had been worried, although she usually was about one thing or the other, while Carlisle adopted an aura of control, much like Marcus would have.

The parallels between his family in Forks and the one he had left at the Volterra startled him, sometimes.

Somebody yawned, and whether it was in his mind or an actual noise from one of the students he couldn't place. His boy continued, _"School sucks. Long weekend should've been extended."_ Edward could practically hear the accompanying pout to the statement. He agreed, though.

"Mr. Cullen," the teacher said, and Edward's gaze jerked upwards.

He raised a brow.

"We're revisiting Act One, Scene Three, will you need help to catch up? I'm sure I can get one of the students here to help you out, just like how they're helping Ms. Swan," he smiled faintly at the girl next to Edward. The other students looked at him, and some seemed willing to volunteer, he could hear it, tendrils of "Pick me" and "Anytime" that he ignored.

He shook his head. "I am in need of any help, thank you," he said.

The teacher nodded. "Okay, then you'd be able to explain the joke that the nurse makes in this scene?"

"Yes," Edward agreed, and then tilted his head away.

The teacher blinked stupidly, and then frowned, acknowledging the subtle insult. "Ms. Swan, would you explain it, then?" Edward smirked.

The girl's eyes widened. "Er, yeah, well, the nurse is saying that when Juliet was younger," Bella bit her lip nervously, "she, fell forward and the Nurse's husband picked her up," her eyes flickered over to Edward. "He asked her if latter she'd fall back instead of in front, cause then, it's like," she blushed. "Well, when she's older, she'll have a husband and," she was stammering too hard for Edward to understand half of what she said. He grinned, hiding it with a hand as he pretended to cough.

In his head, his boy started laughing, although what _he_ was laughing was beyond him.

The teacher shook his head. "What Ms. Swan means is-" and he stopped listening there.

The boy was still laughing, the sort of laughter that made Edward think of someone bending over, clutching their stomach, gasping for air at the end of it. _"Man, I wish I could've been there to see her face."_ And then pictures moving at a speed he couldn't quite follow, snapshots, as if whoever had been watching had increased its speed.

Snapshots that he allowed themselves to flip through this time, as if they were photographs in a book for him to view.

The girl, the one he remembered faintly, Leah, he thought. Fighting with another one of those tanned boys; he looked younger than the others, though, there was more innocence in his face, or, as Aro would have poetically phrased it, more purity in his heart. Then, the boy's face hardened, with anger, with frustration that Leah refused to listen to him. Shouting, loud and awful – they were siblings then, Edward confirmed with a slight nod.

He moved quicker through the memory, watching as the boy, even Edward's thoughts faltered, _"Changed."_ The word seemed to come from the boy, but Edward couldn't be sure of the difference.

It started from his head, as though the head morphed, nose sharpening, a muzzle forming in its place, ears lengthening into triangular figures to sit atop of the head of what was obviously a wolf. Eyes narrowed, but their color did not change.

The body was next, sandy fur erupting from his body, clothes shredded to bits even as his back arched, paws –not feet—hitting the floor. In the place of the boy that Edward had seen, less than a second ago, stood a wolf, larger than he had expected, long limbs awkward on the ground.

_Leah blinked dumbly. "Oh- oh my fucking god, you're- oh," she said stupidly._ The laughing continued, his boy breathing in deeply. _"Didn't think Seth would Change so fast, pretty young, poor Sam had to give him the talk early, not that he didn't already know it or whatever. Sad for Leah, now she's actually got to watch that temper of hers or she'll have a wolf on her home, wouldn't want that, would we?"_

The rambling thoughts of a teenage shape-shifter, Edward thought sardonically.

_"Nice to have Seth in the pack, though, a new brother tagging along."_ His boy said it with a slight slang, one that Edward couldn't quite place, now that he thought about it.

"-do you understand, Mr. Cullen?" the teacher asked.

A slight focus allowed Edward to learn that they were on the same scene; the same joke. "Yes, I do," he said directly, and the teacher's brows furrowed further.

"Would you please pay attention in my class?" he snapped, he didn't seem to like Edward, he wasn't too sure why. He couldn't be bothered to find out either. He didn't even want to know the man's name.

"I am," Edward maintained a straight face – it was one of those things that they drilled into a person who lived at the Volterra for any amount of time.

The teacher's lips pursed. "If you are that sure of listening-"

"I am," Edward said confidently.

He could hear the teacher's mind, annoyance and frustration pouring out in a mess of words that included, _"Fucking Cullens, one after another, Rosalie did it and now this boy, bloody pansy-"_ Edward didn't think teachers cursed this violently the last time he had been at school.

Then again, new words had been created; words that the Volturi members tended not to use.

They enjoyed larger words.

"Mr. Cullen," the teacher repeated, and Edward blinked dutifully.

"Yes?"

The teacher's eyes narrowed, and Edward felt like warning him that whatever it was that the teacher asked, Edward would know the answer. He felt a tad spiteful at the teacher, though, for interrupting the thoughts that he had had.

The teacher took in a deep breath, making the conscious effort to calm down. Edward didn't let his smirk show.

"I will speak to you after class has ended," he said firmly.

Edward nodded. "Of course."

He had a faint thought for Esme, whom he knew would be upset with this. He didn't need to get into trouble within a month of coming to the school. Carlisle would be disappointed, with that _expression_ of his that didn't showcase his feelings, but rather, subtly displayed it. The rest of them probably wouldn't be bothered, although he could easily imagine Alice pestering him for a reason and Emmett patting his shoulder, as though Edward only properly joined the school after some trouble.

"Now, moving on to the next scene, Scene Four, featuring our hero with Mercutio and Benvolio, Mr. Gere, would you like to-"

_A wolf running, body elongating with each stride-_

"If the two of you would help him," the teacher pointed at two students near the front of the class. There was the scratch of the legs of the chairs striking the floor as they stood up. "Now, start-"

_The same wolf, recognizable with its fair fur, blurring with the greenery, body striking only because of its color-_

"And, to sink it in, should you burden love; too great oppression for a tender thing-"

_The forest merging into a chaotic mess of color, erupting as green and black and brown and yellowish colors came from nature and its creatures-_

"If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire of this sir-reverence love, wherein thou stick'st-"

_Creatures making low noises, deep and with treacherous undertones, growling as they clawed at imaginary enemies, practicing for the tangible ones that they would eventually face. The wolf from earlier-_

"O, then, I see the Queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes in shape no bigger than-"

_Wolfs growling, leaping at each other with paws outstretched, teeth showing –sharp and glinting as the sun beat down on them—in a snarl that only grew as the two collided in a fantastic eruption of sound and movement. The wolf, yellowish brown thing, looked small compared to its counterpart, a-_

"Which are children of an idle brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy, which is as thin of substance as the air and more inconstant than the wind, who wooes even now the frozen bosom-"

_A howl of pain as the only wolf that seemed familiar was knocked down, the other wolf biting its neck. The moment the sandy wolf hit the ground, and the jaw was removed, leaving no mark; nothing to show that a fight had even occurred. Another wolf edged closer, nudging the body with its snout, and the wolf stood on shaky feet, the two conversing in soft whining sounds, comforting in their tone of familiarity and understanding. Around them, the other wolves continued, teeth coming down harshly, bodies contorting violently, legs jerking in protest-_

"Strike, drum."

The bell rang, and Edward could only sit in his seat as the rest of the class moved around him.

"Mr. Cullen," the teacher walked towards him as the last of the students trailed out, glancing back to stare at them. He sat on the edge of the table where Bella Swan had been seated and looked at him as though trying to read his mind. He almost laughed at the irony.

"Yes, sir?" he said politely.

He sighed, and then removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Edward sighed inwardly, and if he'd had glasses he would have mimicked the action. He knew what was going to come. "Edward, I know that you're new to this place, this class, and in your old school, you learnt all this?"

Edward nodded. "We completed all of Shakespeare's plays," he said.

The teacher's eyes widened. "Oh, I didn't know that."

Edward shrugged. "I didn't realize you'd still be doing the play." They had done poems and the like, Edward honestly hadn't bothered to find out what they would be doing later. "We did poems there, but not those that you analyzed with us," he explained.

"You've really done all the plays?" he sounded plainly skeptical.

"_Romeo and Juliet_ was done, of course, _Macbeth_ and _Hamlet_ were completed concurrently," Aro and Caius had wanted him to take on those only a while after he'd met them. "After which we researched heavily into _Julies Caesar_ and _Antony and Cleopatra_." Marcus had been reading those in the library, and he had made sure to know the book inside out so that he could speak to Marcus, who would reply with nods or shakes of the head or even –once every decade or so— make a passing comment.

"_A Midsummer's Night Dream_ was also completed, with a play as well," Heidi had been utterly entranced by the romanticism of it all, forcing those at the Volterra to act out the parts. "_Taming of The Shrew_ was a riot," he grinned at the memory, it was quite possibly the first time he had seen Demetri laugh with abandon. They had read it together, excerpts springing into his memory even as he remembered the incidences. "_Merchant of Venice_ was another," because Felix had enjoyed the drama of it, enjoyed acting it out in life.

He looked up at the teacher, who looked bewildered by it all.

"But, to do all that would take years, at least, if you were completing the books as thoroughly as we do here," the teacher said, a tone of cockiness in his tone.

Edward smirked. "We actually did far more specific analysis than is practiced in this institution, we even took to watching plays, visiting areas mentioned in the plays, so on." Of course they had, Aro had known Shakespeare, met him, spoken to him even.

Aro gained pleasure from the arts; he had not executed William because of respect for his talent.

This teacher would never be able to capture the play's essence as those at the Volterra would, those who had lived during all of those times and experienced all of those emotions first-hand.

"Well," the teacher spluttered slightly before gathering himself. "Maybe you should be transferred to a higher class," he said. "Just for this subject, we can do that."

Edward shrugged. "It'd be nice, I guess."

_Nice. _

He snorted. It wouldn't be any different from this class.

"Well, I'll speak to the principal, we'll figure out a way of changing classes for you." The teacher nodded, _"Anything to get you away from here, distracting everyone, thinking he's so good-"_

"I can leave now, then?" Edward asked pointedly, cutting short his thoughts.

"Yes, yes," the teacher stood, and taking Edward's curve of lips as a smile, let him pass. Edward's smirk widened as he moved towards the cafeteria, where he could already hear the buzz of conversation.

He walked towards their table –meaning the table that everyone in the school acknowledged as the Cullens'—where the rest of his family was already waiting, Alice talking animatedly. Jasper's eyes flickered towards him, brow rising, and Edward wondered what Jasper was feeling. He murmured something, and Alice stopped talking, a hand hanging mid-air as she turned towards Edward.

"You got into trouble so quickly?" she said, as Edward was within listening distance, tables away from them.

Edward shrugged, moving nearer and sitting down. "The teacher was boring. He offered to allow me to-"

"Switch classes, I know," Alice said distractedly. "I didn't see you getting into trouble, I wasn't focusing on you, sorry, I would've warned you otherwise."

"He's not feeling too upset at the incident," Jasper said, letting a small grin flit across his face.

Across the room, someone screamed in her mind, and heads bent to discuss the moment where one of the moody Cullens actually smiled. Edward didn't wince, but shared a commiserating glance with Jasper, who did, at the sudden rush of emotion.

Alice laid a hand on Jasper's arm.

Across them, Emmett looked up from where he had been toying with strands of Rosalie's hair. "Not bad, man, took me three weeks to piss off a teacher, they kept laughing at everything I pulled," he said.

Rosalie's body dug into Emmett's in a silent demand, and his fingers returned to her hair.

Rosalie purred. "You know Esme's going to be annoyed. And Carlisle will give you The Look Of D and D."

"D and D?" Edward asked.

"Doom and Disappointment," Rosalie said. "You know, where his face just looks as though you did some great failure, even though you didn't, and he doesn't punish you or anything. But he'll give some annoying lecture on how you could do better for yourself and how you made the decision to come here, so you have to take responsibility for the actions that you take here. Then Esme'll join him because she's like that and you can't snap at them cause they look so damned pathetic together with that face."

The rest of the table stared at her.

She shrugged. "They give it a lot to me."

Alice shrugged. "Well, she's right."

Edward looked at her, and flashes of _"Edward, I know that you're trying your best-"_ and _"Maybe if you just worked a little more to integrate yourself into this society-"_ and_"You've got to take responsibility for your actions-"_ hit him.

He groaned. "I hate it when they do that."

"They've never done it to you, though," Jasper pointed out.

"No, but Carlisle must've taught Aro, because he has. Caius doesn't, but sometimes Marcus does –he doesn't say anything, but he thinks things really loudly. Heidi does it too, kind of like a make-shift Esme," he said.

"Aro does it?" Rosalie looked amused. "He doesn't seem like the fathering sort."

Edward frowned; Rosalie had met Aro twice, neither had been pleasant experiences – the first time, Aro had stared at Rosalie longingly before asking her to join him, the second time hadn't been too different from the first. "Well, he's not that bad, really."

Rosalie snorted. "Yeah, he's just weird as fuck."

"Rosalie," Alice chided. "Aro has been kind to Edward-"

"Why's that, again?" Rosalie asked pointedly. "Why did Aro take Edward into his place in the first place?"

Edward's face paled further. "We never did anything, Rosalie, Aro wouldn't force himself on me," he said coldly.

"Wouldn't he?" Rosalie straightened. "Didn't he?"

Emmett put a hand on her shoulder, as though ready to pull her back if she should attack him physically instead of just verbally. Edward would have preferred an actual attack himself. "No, he didn't, none of them did. They acted just as much my family as you do," he snarled.

Rosalie seemed to be about to speak, but Edward continued swiftly. "In fact, they were better to me than most, they never asked intrusive questions when I specifically said otherwise, they never invaded my privacy as you seem inclined to do-"

"So now asking you if you were fucked by a man who only ever wanted to do that is something private?" Rosalie spat.

Edward scoffed. "No, Rose, of course I want the whole world and their mother to learn of my sexual exploits," sarcasm slid off each syllable.

"You left Carlisle for this man, just because he seduced you into thinking that-"

"That wasn't seduction," Edward retorted.

Alice stood up, making loud enough a noise to stop their conversation and that of those of the tables around them. "Both of you shut up," she said clearly.

Edward looked around, he had almost forgotten where they were. "You," she turned to Edward, "she's got a right to worry, we all have." Edward looked away; he should have known better than to argue with Rosalie, he knew what she was like, she would never admit concern. In the cafeteria too – although, they had both been speaking with quiet cruelty.

"And you," she turned to Rosalie, "If Edward doesn't want to tell us something, then we wait until he does, we wait until he's willing to talk."

She took a deep breath, and in the pause, Jasper sent out calm; a wave so strong that even Rosalie wilted in her seat, a soft smile turning up on her face. Edward was openly grinning, Emmett was laughing, his easy nature breaking out under Jasper's influence. Alice was giggling, Jasper pulling her onto his lap.

"Thank you," Alice said, still giggling.

Edward wondered what they must look like to the students; one moment ready to leap at each other in battle, and the next consumed by joy.

_"Bloody strange, these Cullens." A sight of them, looking happier than they'd been since he'd joined them. "What is wrong with them? God, they should all go see the school psych. First the whole incest stuff and now this emotion jumping shit." Students gossiping, not even attempting to be quiet. "Everyone's going to be talking about those losers now, how annoying." Eyes following their every movement. "He looks so handsome when he smiles." A sigh. "Man, she looks hot. Wouldn't mind tapping that-"_

There were some things he didn't want to hear.

_"Seth's fun to fight with, definitely funny to watch Leah go batshit crazy on anyone who hurts him."_ Amusement was stark in his boy's voice, and Edward's own smile widened.

Alice's eyes widened slightly and her gaze jerked onto him.

"Edward," she said, "What are you-" she broke off.

Edward frowned. "What?"

She paused. "Nothing," she said, when it so obviously meant something.

Jasper looked at him strangely, but Emmett and Rosalie didn't seem to have sensed anything, kissing each other lightly on the lips. "Did you have a vision?" Edward pressed.

Alice shook her head. "Not exactly," she said sincerely. "Don't worry, if it's important, I'll tell you," she assured him. Edward believed Alice implicitly, he would never doubt her or her word. Jasper nodded, as though hearing the words –more like sensing the emotions—and moved closer to Edward.

He felt alone for less than a moment before the voice sprung up in his mind.

_"Can't wait to get back to the forests, man, always fun to have someone new to fight with, all the others get so common, all the other styles get so common after a while. Wonder if Seth'll let me fight him without Sam or Leah that watching over us, yeah, then Quil could be judge."_

Edward heard the plans in motion, meeting places and times, people who had to be there and people who needed to be distracted and far, far away, excuses that needed to be made and Plan B's –which Marcus used to warn him against; something about Plan A never failing.

"Edward, find out what that annoying creature of a girl is thinking," Rosalie barked, glaring at someone at the next table.

"Who? The blonde?" Edward asked, glancing back.

"Edward, you can't really be thinking of doing that," Alice chided.

Rosalie shook her head. "The bitch who spilled her filth on me," she said, cocking her head subtly at the black-haired girl, Bella, from Art.

"She?" Edward said skeptically. "You needn't bother, she's in a few classes of mine; she doesn't think about anything worth listening to." His boy did, though. "But, right now?" He focused. "Me, guys, sex, herself, me again, herself, nobody liking her, the blond girl annoying her, the guy annoying her, everyone talking about her too much, nobody liking her, me-"

Alice started grinning; Rosalie was smirking. "She can't honestly be thinking like that," Jasper said, although amusement tinged his voice.

Edward grinned.

There was a static of noise filling the room.

"Whatever it is," Rosalie continued, "If she keeps on sneaking looks at us like that-"

Alice interrupted. "Like the rest of the school does?"

"Yeah, but she's cursing me for Christ knows what-"

"Isn't it obvious?" Jasper said. "You're surrounded by us. Not to mention the fact that you look like _you_, of course she's cursing you."

Emmett nodded in thanks unobtrusively as Rosalie preened under the praise. She knew she was beautiful –beyond that; Edward didn't know the words, he didn't think writers could pen Rosalie's beauty without falling short in some aspect—but she still enjoyed hearing compliments.

Although she wouldn't admit it, hearing them from her family members meant the most to her.

Alice's eyes colored, clouding, and a moment later she smirked. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, she's going to exit the room in three, two, one, and-" They turned just in time to watch the girl in question rise, anger clear in the furrow of her brows and pursing of her lips, as she snapped something at a boy and walked off.

The boy blinked dumbly, only thinking to follow her a few seconds later, after the door closed behind her with a resounding slam.

The blond girl glared at both of them.

The Cullens looked at each other. They grinned. "I feel better now," Rosalie said contently.

Edward laughed.

-

Edward was having a dream.

He knew that it was a dream.

He tried to figure out which part of this entire situation was the most disturbing: that he could dream at all, since he hadn't in too long a time, that he knew it was a dream, because he didn't think it was the normal turn of events, not that he would know, or that he recognized that it wasn't _his_ dream.

Or, alternatively, the fourth option: that he instinctively knew that it was his boy's dream.

Belatedly, he wondered if his body was resting now, he had closed his eyes while lying on the couch what seemed only a moment ago, and if he could wake himself up if he pinched himself, like Alice, from the movie Alice had forced them to watch.

He didn't want to wake up, though, not just yet.

Edward was in a forest, which was quickly becoming familiar territory to him; about that fact, he couldn't decide whether he was more pleased or upset. His mind –or was it his heart?—pushed him to trust in the former. He listened to the sounds of the forest, quiet, crickets, the grass, branches creaking-

A scent, wafting through the air, and Edward was running.

That was when he realized he wasn't running as he normally would either. For one, he had four legs instead of two. He hardly noticed the fact though, because another sensation entered his consciousness – _heat_.

Heat as he hadn't felt in too long. The heat that human bodies felt and emitted without once appreciating it comprehensively, the heat that he longed for while in the cold buildings at the Volterra, heat that he could not feel as he wanted to because he was too entrenched in cold.

If he could have, he would have made some sort of a pitiful noise of pleasure.

"There's food near, blood, an animal, not deer- not elk- rabbits-" Another voice interrupting what seemed to be Edward's thoughts even though they came in his boy's voice. "Rabbits? I like rabbits, they taste the best so far, not that I've tried so much-" His boy cutting through. "Seth, you haven't tried enough to decide that rabbits taste the best."

Edward was confused, a state he wasn't in often. There was a clutter in his mind –was it his mind? Was it his boy's? Were they one? Was he his boy?—that he wasn't accustomed to feeling.

"Food, good food, I'm hungry, got to have something to eat before I die some horrid death-"

"You just ate, Jake-"

"I'm a growing boy, can't I be hungry?" And Edward felt genuinely hungry, which was strange, because he shouldn't have needed to feed so soon – he knew he could last another week easily without feeling the pull. "You aren't one to talk, Paul, who ate the last cake that Em made?"

"That was you?" A voice he recognized, finally, the female one, Leah. "I didn't get to have a goddamned slice of the thing."

"Not my fault she only made one, right after my training with Sam too."

"You selfish bastard."

"How come you get to curse and I don't?" A whine from the youngest one, Seth.

"Because I'm older than you and bigger than you and I'm in charge, so shut up and stop whining or snapping or whatever it is you keep doing these days before we have you for dinner instead."

Laughter, from him. Him meaning his boy or him meaning himself, as _Edward_ –he stressed his name to himself lest he forget it in the chaos—he couldn't quite decipher. "Listen to your sister, Seth," he teased.

"Shut up," Seth snapped. All in his mind.

It felt like Jane and Renata had somewhere had a child with both their abilities, tormenting him through confusion.

"Didn't your sis just say you couldn't snap at us?"

"No, she said I couldn't snap at her, she didn't say I couldn't do it to you," said smugly.

A snort from somewhere else. "You do realize that since we can all hear you, snapping at any one of us means that you're technically snapping at her too?"

"No, it doesn't, Leah doesn't mind when I insult you guys," Seth said confidently.

A soft hum of consent.

He was laughing again.

He, whoever it was that he was right now, laughed more Edward usually did.

And then, the scent again, and this time there was a confirmation of rabbit before too much noise and clatter and too many voices filling his mind at once, control over his mind falling into threads as they hadn't since before he had joined the Volturi, and Edward was screaming in his mind because he couldn't think and his mind was the only thing he had control over and he wanted out, out-

"Out, out-"

Someone was screaming, and there were hands on him, pulling him and tugging him and someone continued to scream as Edward slowly opened his eyes and understood that that someone was actually him.

He stopped abruptly.

His throat felt hoarse, his eyes smarted from the light of the room compared to the darkness of the forest from earlier, and his limbs were contorted, legs drawn up to his chests and palms covering his ears protectively. There were hands on him still, gentle and soothing, and he unfurled himself slowly.

The rest of his family stared at him, even Rosalie looking slightly concerned.

Esme was the first to speak, Carlisle laying a gentle hand on his shoulder to straighten him on the couch. "Edward, are you okay?" The question was so deceptively simple, and Edward very badly wanted to be able to nod and leave it at that, but he couldn't. They deserved better than his lies.

"I-" his voice cracked slightly, and he cleared his throat. "I'm not sure," he said, which was the closest he could get, because he wasn't sure what he was.

He knew who he was now, though –Edward Cullen—and that, at least, was an improvement.

"Edward, what happened?" Alice asked, and she looked a cross between frightened and worried, even Jasper not able to calm her down properly, and Edward shook his head.

"I think I might've dreamt," he said slowly. "But, not as me."

Confused expressions met his statement.

"Christ," Rosalie breathed. "You've been at that place for so long that you've lost it."

Edward broke into a reluctant smile. "No."

"Well, you're sure as hell not making sense," Emmett interjected. Carlisle frowned slightly in his direction, and Emmett shrugged. "What? It's true, he's not."

"We're encouraging Edward to speak to us, Emmett, so let's hear him out," Esme said soothingly.

They looked at him expectantly.

"Well, I don't know what to say," Edward started awkwardly.

"How about with what was in the dream?" Alice asked.

Edward frowned. "You didn't see this," he said. Statement, not a question.

Alice closed her eyes. "Remember when I said that I'd tell you what you needed to know?"

Edward nodded.

"You don't need to know yet."

Edward's muscles tightened in argument, but Jasper sent him a warning look.

Carlisle frowned at them both. "Trust your sister, Edward," he said, and Edward wanted to say that Alice wasn't really his sister. But, no matter how much anger he might have felt then, he wasn't willing to hurt her like that just as yet. She was toeing the line, though.

Carlisle nodded in understanding.

"Do you want some time to yourself?" he guessed.

Edward nodded, "I'd like that."

Carlisle nodded again, and then turned, gesturing towards the door. Alice looked like she wanted to protest, but Carlisle silenced her with a glance, and they trooped out in a line. Esme hesitated, then said, "Edward, we do love you," and closed the door behind her.

Edward laid down again, breathing deeply, unnecessarily.

"Well." He was reduced to talking to himself. "Fuck." He didn't curse often, but he thought that the moment called for it.

He went through the memories of the –not his, not his boy's, because he couldn't tell—dream, and then paused. He went back, remembering each detail. One word stood out.

_"Jake."_

His boy had a name.

"Jake." He whispered it; he didn't want his family to overhear. He liked the name. It rolled off his tongue, it sounded right. "Jake," he said again, because he could, because now he could put a name to the voice in his mind, and that made him feel less insane.

"Jake, Jake, Jake," because he wanted to.

He frowned then. He suddenly wasn't sure if it was dream. It had felt too real, and he knew now, he just _knew_, that Jake was his boy's name. Which meant that it was real. That was troubling, to say the least.

He sighed.

Edward needed assistance, and the sort that one could only gain from the Volturi. He was hesitant to involve his friends, though, not completely sure why, but trusting the instinct in his gut.

If it was real, then he had tapped into Jake's mind without even realizing it, he had entered the other boy's consciousness without searching for it. At a moment of weakness, Jake's thoughts had not only been in his mind, but he had been in Jake's.

He shivered, but he wasn't cold. He couldn't feel.

He remembered heat.

Edward closed his eyes. "Jake."

Then again, his dreams might actually just be the children of an idle brain.


	8. Chapter 8

"Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man," Alice sang, voice high and shrill in the dawn, like their very own rooster or alarm clock, neither of which they had any real use for.

Edward sat at the kitchen table –he'd gotten past scoffing at the fact that they had a kitchen table to begin with—and watched her fly about, _baking_.

"Why're you doing this again?" Rosalie said, sitting next to him. She had little choice, because Emmett had come to the realization that not only was he naturally talented at cooking, but he also enjoyed the act. He could be stubborn when he wanted to be, and Rosalie allowed this small allowance, if only to watch him in an apron and white hat.

"The school needs to raise funds somehow for their little sports hall or whatever they call it," Alice said, carefully squeezing yellow icing onto one of the gingerbread men she had laid on their table. And the counters. And the living room tables as well.

Emmett whooped as the oven pinged, pulling out a tray of brown men that were just perfect.

Of course, they went through about three trays before learning how to do it properly, but it was hardly as if they lacked the time to spare, Edward thought dryly. Or the money, he frowned. "Why don't we just donate, again?"

Alice sighed, as though she'd answered the questions too many times –which she might have, Edward tended to forget unimportant things—"Because I want us to become part of the school community, less exclusive, it's not very nice, we need more friends outside of just ourselves." _"You need company outside of the voices in your head, can't be healthy,"_ Alice continued silently.

They quietened again, the air full of the noise of the oven baking yet another tray of innocent men who did nothing to deserve the torture inflicted upon them by Emmett's forceful hands or Alice's colorful icing and chocolate buttons.

And, of course, that awkward tension that reminded Edward that they had all witnessed him quite out of his mind less than a week ago.

It stretched. He winced and looked down.

Rosalie snorted. "Fuck this," she whispered harshly.

As though existing to break such awkward silences, the front door opened, and all their gazes jerked. Then, Esme's voice was heard. "Oh my, you certainly do work fast, Alice," she walked into the kitchen. "Emmett, you too? Gracious, good thing I bought extra then," she said, dumping bags of what looked like flour and butter and the splashes of color that could only be additional icing.

Bags that would have been far too heavy for the average woman to lift, and Edward grinned. People thought that Esme was weak, sometimes. Fools.

Alice's eyes brightened, the gold blazing for a moment, and she blurred as she pulled everything out of the different bags, tearing the thin plastic easily.

"Slow down, Alice," Jasper reminded her softly, not looking up from his book. Edward didn't take note of the title. His reading tastes rarely coincided with that of Jasper's.

Alice paused, then resumed taking the items out, if at a more human pace. She wanted to savor the experience of being human-like, or so she'd announced to the room earlier, and it seemed that slower meant better.

That logic made no sense, Caius had told him once, when they'd been watching some humans eat their ice-cream near the Volterra. Oh? Why, of course, they had such short lives to live, slowing things down just meant less time to do other things and melting ice cream.

It was different with vampires, they had eternity; would time spent change the way they felt about anything? On that long a time line, nothing was _long_; nothing could be_savored_.

Caius would have scoffed at Alice's little actions.

Jasper looked up. "You're being pessimistic, stop it," he instructed.

Edward blinked, "I'm not, I'm just thinking."

Alice's eyes flickered towards him, and then gazed over briefly. She frowned. "I don't have enough butter for my seventh batch," she announced.

Esme looked over, a tinge of worry in her eyes. "Just how much are you making?" She looked out, where the other trays of gingerbread men and women and children –Emmett had made some specifically for Rosalie, Edward knew, he'd surprise her later—lay smiling at them, waiting to be consumed. Masochistic things.

Emmett grinned. "We're making enough to hold our own stall – we'll be the Cullen stall, not like those clubs or whatever."

"And we'll earn more money than all of them," Alice added.

"You're trying to get a one-up over the humans?" Rosalie looked at Alice, since she hadn't considered this aspect of the baking. She smirked.

Esme closed her eyes, as though silently praying.

"I'm in," Rosalie stood up. "I'll do the mixing." She walked over to the sink, washing her hands under the water while the rest of them looked on in surprise. "What?" Rosalie bit out, "those things need to be taken down," she stressed. "Thinking they can fu-," she glanced at Esme and backtracked, "mess around with me just like that."

Emmett laughed, slinging his hands around Rosalie, careful not to let the dough on his hands come into contact with her clothes. He was happy; not suicidal.

Rosalie flung water on him, but she was smiling.

The picture froze in Edward's mind, and he imagined that ten years from now, a hundred, ten hundred, it didn't matter. The two of them would always be like this, because they were mates, and because they were unlucky enough to be what they were.

Eternity, he thought, might be better with a mate. But it was still unbearable.

Rosalie walked over to another bag of flour, tearing it open with one finger. It poured into the blue bowl, and she proceeded to make the shapes of stars and moons –variety was, Edward thought sardonically, the spice of life— under the neat instructions of Alice and the watchful eye of her mate.

Edward didn't keep track of time of how long the three of them lazed around the kitchen, watching the other three create more men, now with accompanying galaxies and pets and houses, but Carlisle came in behind them at some point and Edward realized that it had to be well into the evening.

"How are you feeling?" Carlisle asked softly, so that no one could overhear.

Edward shrugged. "The same."

"Things will make sense eventually," Carlisle said, voice wise and knowing –fitting for someone who had lived as long as he had. Then Esme turned, she had been advising Emmett on how to best make the batter, and smiled widely.

"Carlisle," she moved towards him, and Carlisle didn't hesitate before hugging her, pecking her lightly on the lips.

"How long have they been at this?" Carlisle asked, gesturing towards the trays that now filled both the kitchen and the living room.

"The entire day," Jasper answered, now at the last few pages of his book.

"And how long do they intend to work at it?" was his next question.

Alice pursed her lips in thought. "Well, we have quite a bit now, if we do this the whole weekend, it should be enough for the principal to let us have our own stall." Carlisle rose his brows in a clear lack of understanding. "We want a Cullen Stall."

Rosalie explained, "Because those humans keep thinking that we're some group of spoilt kids who don't want to be part of them-"

"We don't," Jasper reminded her.

"Yeah, but they also think that we don't want to help the school-"

"You don't," Emmett interrupted.

"Maybe not, but we have to pretend we do, just to show them," Rosalie said, as if everything she said made perfect sense. In some ways, it did. To Carlisle, at least, since he only nodded and ran to his room to change into clothes that were more comfortable.

The nurses, Edward thought dryly when Carlisle returned, might have fainted at the sight of the man in sweats and a thin shirt.

Esme smiled at this sight of him, and Jasper looked at them over his book, a knowing tinge to his eyes. Edward didn't need to hear their thoughts to guess what Jasper was feeling, or what Esme and Carlisle would be doing later.

Then he winced, because that was something he didn't need to picture.

_"Ew."_

He agreed with the voice before the realization that Jake was back even registered. Jake, because he now had a _name_, and Edward still flushed with pleasure at the idea. He concentrated, not that he really needed to, and his mind tracked the flow of consciousness.

Jasper let his book drop on the table, and gazed carefully at him.

Edward nodded at the unvoiced question – _"Is he back?"_ – and Jasper's eyes narrowed, concentrating on the emotions that emitted from Edward.

He'd had a theory, that if Edward could follow the thoughts of Jake to the extent that they shared thoughts –that was the only phrase that seemed to fit the dream/reality that Edward had experienced—then their emotions might reflect it. Jasper had asked Edward, of course, if he could test this theory, since focusing his ability on a single person meant a serious invasion of Edward's emotions; his entire being.

Much like how Edward's hearing Jake's thoughts were an invasion of the boy's privacy, but Edward didn't focus on that news for now.

_"Definitely didn't need to think of that." A man, tall and tanned with a body that seemed carved like a statue, kissing a woman with a scar that stretched across part of her face. The man hoisting her up, her legs circling his hips; the woman pressed against the wall, the man sucking at the junction between her neck and shoulders; the woman throwing her head back, letting out a- "Shut up, mind. Shut the fuck up."_

Jasper was frowning, and Edward wondered why.

"Jasper?" Alice seemed to have noticed as well.

Then her eyes caught sight of Edward, and she was frowning too.

"Edward, are you-"

_"That's disgusting. Why'd Quil have to open his mouth?"_

"It's happening, isn't it?" Rosalie caught on, noticing the exchange between the three, broken as it was, since neither Jasper nor Edward responded to Alice's interrogative tone. "You're hearing it again, right, that boy." Edward hadn't told them yet, that he knew the boy's name.

And that Jake was a shape-shifter.

He knew they wouldn't like the latter fact, they would hate it.

Emmett stopped mixing the flour with butter, streams of the mixture dripping from his fingers, Carlisle stopped flirting with Esme –he still did that, Edward thought it was sweet—and Esme stopped laughing, the spoon she'd been pointing at Carlisle stilling mid-air.

"Edward?" Carlisle asked.

Edward nodded slowly. "He's imagining two people together, he's disgusted."

"And so are you," Jasper said.

Edward shook his head. "I don't know either of them, I don't-"

"You are," Jasper said, it wasn't a question.

Esme walked towards him, sitting on the stool next to him, as though her just being there would allow for some measure of comfort. It did, and Edward smiled gratefully. A little wearily, maybe. He'd been waiting for Jake for a few days, now that it was there, the anti-climatic effect tired him.

"Is he saying something?" Emmett asked, curious.

_"Die, Quil, die." Torture inflicting on a smaller, but equally tanned and muscular body._

"He's upset with his friend for making him think some things," Edward said.

_"Embry, shut your boyfriend up."_ Jake voiced the thought. _Two boys scowling at him, a few choice curse words erupting from the one called Quil._ Edward didn't know how he knew the identities of the two, but he knew that he was right, giving them names.

"He's insulting his friends, he's gloating." He wasn't sure how to word the images and words in his minds, but he was hoping his family might understand it at any rate.

_A bit of playful tussle between the three of them. Turning, all three of them in wolf form, running towards the woods._

Jasper winced. "That's a lot of-" _Joy from the liberating freedom of not being restricted in a human cage; pure and unadulterated pleasure from being in a better form, an easier form; the rush of adrenaline that came with this new body that he would never get used to._ "Emotion," he ended, because even Jasper couldn't put words to that.

"But it's not coming from-" Alice started, and then stopped abruptly, because Edward wasn't listening. He wasn't himself. Or, maybe he was, but his mind wasn't.

Emotions didn't come from a mind, though.

_"Jake, shut up, man." Laughter. "Embry, get him for me would you." A wolf lying on the ground lazily, watching him as another jumped on him. The action, for some reason, didn't seem to threaten._ It was all comfortable, actions that they'd done so often they had the tinge of routine to them.

"He's bickering with his friends, they're fighting, like Jasper and Emmett do sometimes," Edward continued.

"There's power there," Jasper said, cocking his head with lack of understanding. Humanity had emotions that were more neutral than those that erupted from Edward now, emotions he guessed originated in this boy. "A lot more than usual." His eyes locked onto Edward's, and Edward knew that Jasper knew that he was keeping things from them.

"They're fighting now," Edward rushed before Jasper could ask more questions.

_Claws, fur, more laughter from everyone involved, soft scratches made, bites that would leave no mark on any of their bodies. Then, in unison, they turned on the third wolf. A yelp as it scrambled away. "This is unfair, two against one." Quil protesting. Embry grinning even as he pounced on the wolf, the two of them rolling around the ground._

"They're still fighting, they're close, friends," Edward summarized.

"Family," Jasper supplied, drawing from the feelings of love and support and things that he recognized from being around his own family.

Alice hugged him from the back, leaning her head on his shoulder. Carlisle adopted the same position around Esme, and that suggestion of eternal comradeship wasn't lost on Edward. Rosalie let Emmett lift her onto his lap as he sat on the chair. They were all looking at him, their attention focused on him, but Edward suddenly felt extremely lonely.

He wanted Aro, then, to smile and tell him that if only he'd be more normal and feed on humans he wouldn't feel such things. Or Caius, to make a crude remark about something that would distract him. Or even Marcus' quiet company. Or-

_"Did I tell you, she's talking in full sentences now, and she said my name?" A groan. "Must we talk about her again?"_

"You seem weary, sick and tired of-"

"One of them has brought up a topic, a girl, a child I think," Edward said, putting together the pieces slowly.

_"Claire was wearing the cutest red dress-" Sniggers filling otherwise silent air. "The way you talk, you're either a girl or a pedo-" A growl escaping the one who had been talking about Claire._ Quil, his name was, Edward thought.

_"Don't be stupid, Embry."_ There was a warning in his Jake's voice, but he still seemed amused. _"Just saying though, you do seem to-" Fighting as the other wolf stood and attacked. Loud laughter from the other wolves even as they defended themselves-_

"Something amuses you-"

"Something amuses the thing in his head," Rosalie corrected, snide and annoyed, but not with Edward, he knew. She was worried, but Rosalie found it difficult to express emotions that weren't… passionate.

"What is it?" Emmett asked, silencing Rosalie.

"Inside joke," Edward muttered.

"Do you get it?" Alice asked, and Edward said, "No," almost on instinct because he couldn't understand something that he wasn't a part of. But he did, because he was smiling to himself since the joke made sense to him at least vaguely-

"Yeah," he changed his mind. "It does. I mean, I don't know why, but it does-"

He knew he was making no sense, not even to himself.

"Never mind," he sighed.

Esme smiled in a sign of support. "Try focus on why you understand this boy, what makes him-"

He didn't hear the rest of what she said because his head was suddenly filled with someone screaming. _"I swear, I'm going to get you soon, Seth, just cause you can Change now doesn't mean that I can't catch you-"_ Leah, Edward spotted. He wondered what her brother had done this time, but his mind answered with a series of images and words that were too contorted for him to separate.

Seth should really clean his room more often, was Edward's final conclusion.

_"Damn, Seth, you want us to cover?"_ his boy was asking, because he was that suicidal. His friends thought so too, apparently. _"Shut up, Jake. Seth, you run, I'd tell you where to, but Leah would hear. Just get to Sam, try find him-"_

Then a burst of noise and Edward winced. _"Well, guess Leah found him."_

Silence, and then one of the other wolves piped up. _"Poor guy."_

The sound of yelping and squealing came from somewhere, and then a high-pitched scream from Seth, and Jake started laughing. _"He sounds like a girl."_ Then another bout of silence.

_"Jake, run, Leah's coming after you for that-"_ A warning that came a second too late because Edward broke the connection then –it was something he did every time someone's mind became too overwhelming.

He looked up at his family.

"Well?" Alice asked expectantly.

He shrugged. "Well, nothing."

Alice's eyes narrowed. "What else happened?"

"They fought." He only had to search for Jacob then, and found the line of thought, more fighting. "They're still fighting."

_"What?"_ Jake was speaking to someone. _"You hear that?"_

_"Hear what?" Leah growled. "Stop trying to distract me." A snort from one of the other wolves. "That sounded wrong." Leah growled again, and the others shut up. "No, no, hear that, someone else-"_

"Edward? What is it?" Carlisle asked.

Edward frowned. "He's hearing something."

_"I'm hearing something, I know I am, now who said that- it wasn't you guys, I know your voices, there's someone-"_

And Edward cut off abruptly because Jasper's eyes had brightened dangerously and the instincts he had honed from years at the Volterra were warning him now. "Did you feel that?"

"Fear, a lot of it, reproach, security, comfort, but overlaying confusion-"

"Jasper," and Alice's eyes glazed over. "I still-" she cut off and instead looked towards Carlisle, who apparently understood her anyway.

"Edward?" Esme this time.

Edward sat down, and he couldn't remember when he'd stood up to begin with. "I think he heard me."

Hi everybody! Thank you for following this series so far, thanks to everyone who's reviewed and the many who've Favorited this. Just dropping a note: this story has been nominated for the Twilight Slash Awards LJ! It's been nominated for Best Original Plot, Best Cliff Hanger for Chapter 7 and Best Non-Human AU. I would really appreciate it if all you voted for me at the TwiSlash Awards here:

community. livejournal. com/twislashawards/2503. html

Without the spaces. Thank you! (:


	9. Chapter 9

Edward wasn't dealing very well with the aftermath of his announcement. If the now overly-concerned expressions of his parents wasn't hard enough to deal with, Rosalie kept snarling at him as if Jake would hear it and, to quote her, 'back the fuck off'. Like she was now, soft growls escaping her every few minutes.

_"Sorry,"_he heard. Emmett, he would naturally feel responsible for the actions of his mate.

Edward shrugged to show that he didn't mind. Anyone could tell it was a lie, but it wasn't Emmett's fault, and he didn't need any burden greater than those Rosalie would place on him – convince Edward to stop listening to the boy; get Edward back to his old self; find the boy and get rid of him. Things Rosalie was surely telling her mate because she wanted her brother back, and Edward wasn't doing his duty.

He was preoccupied with Jake. He lay on the floor now, thumbing a book, _Ultimate Mandarin_, in an effort to distract himself by learning a new language. He knew several; he had time and startlingly little to do at the Volterra.

He could practically hear Aro chiding him for not being more active in Forks; doing more; learning more; exploiting this opportunity to live amongst humans as Aro would have surely done.

Edward smiled softly to himself. He missed his other family, as dysfunctional as they might have been. The months passed quickly, and although he knew they wouldn't think so, that this probably felt like a simple moment to them, Edward did feel it. Now, he could hear Caius scoffing at his sentimentality.

"Alice," he looked up to the girl, who was learning the language with him because they could, and said, "Nee hao mah?"

"Ni hao ma, Edward," Alice rolled her eyes. "Why're you learning Mandarin anyway? You're terrible at languages."

"I'm not."

Jasper laughed. "Alice is going to bring up the Fiasco of the Spanish in the 70's."

Edward scowled. "In my defence-"

Alice was the one to laugh this time. "You have no defence, Edward."

His scowl morphed to something more like a pout. "I didn't know chinga was a curse."

"A five year old on the streets could've told you that much," Rosalie said from her position curled on Emmett's body. Emmett himself kept silent, but the grin on his face spoke more than Edward cared for.

"Key words being 'on the streets'," Edward said, raising himself to lean on his elbows, book falling carelessly. "It's not like they were going to teach me curse words, those people were royal." Even Rosalie had to snort at that.

"It was an absolute disaster," Alice said, shaking her head and grinning.

Edward let himself flop back down. There was no arguing here, he was outnumbered.

But the small conversation had broken whatever tension stifling the room, and when Esme entered half an hour later, Alice was giggling over Edward's pronunciation of random words, Rosalie was fluently reading out every word that remotely resembled a curse, Emmett was helping her by using them in sentences, and Jasper was trying to control his laughter. It was a sight she didn't get to see often.

"Cago," Rosalie said loudly.

Emmett thought, then grinned. "Cago en tu leche."

It translated to something like, 'I shit in your milk'. Esme wasn't too sure and she didn't particularly want to find out. Catching sight of her, Jasper stilled, and Rosalie quickly shut the book, throwing it at Edward's head. Edward caught it on reflex, letting out a smug, 'Hah,' at Rosalie.

"Children," Esme said warningly. They still acted like children, of course. "You've got school in an hour, make sure you bring all the cookies and cupcakes and everything else that's cluttering my home, got it?"

Alice nodded, representing the group. "I'm bringing half the gingerbread men, they're packed in the yellow boxes, Rosalie's bringing the other half. Jasper's taking care of the gingerbread women, who're in red boxes. Emmett's bringing the gingerbread kids, who're in," she paused, thinking, "blue boxes. He's also taking most the cupcakes, which are in the green boxes, and Edward's taking the rest, and he's bringing the clothes and the sign we made and you and Carlisle will bring the tables and stuff." She breathed in unnecessarily then.

"That's all?" Esme confirmed, and Alice nodded the affirmative. "Excellent, then you guys can start preparing for school proper."

Emmett groaned.

"Like a child," Alice muttered, and Rosalie's head turned to glare at her.

"Hypocrite," she snapped.

"Break it up, you two," Esme said, stepping between them and effectively blocking their view of each other. "Get yourselves together, get ready, get going."

Considering the fact that they were vampires –which gave them the attached super speed and agility and lack of sleep and thus, extra time— Edward would have assumed that it would take less time for them to get ready for school. But some things, he thought, didn't change; vampire or mortal.

For one, Rosalie still hogged the bathroom and took over an hour to fix her hair and makeup; Alice still flitted about arranging the outfits so that they looked good; Emmett still lazed about even though he didn't need extra minutes of sleep to survive the day, week, eternity. Jasper was the only one continuously ready on time, sitting on one of the stools in the kitchen, making soft chatter with Esme and she went about doing whatever she did in the morning.

"Edward, how're you feeling?" Carlisle's voice startled him out of his contemplations.

"Uh," Edward said, then shook his head. "Sorry, I'm fine," and continued, because Carlisle deserved more honesty than that from him. "A little overwhelmed, maybe, but I'll handle it just fine. You need not worry." He paused, then snatching a few phrases from Carlisle, added, "Perhaps you could also tell Esme not to needlessly worry?"

Carlisle grinned. "She's your mother, it's her duty to worry. She's probably happier for all her worrying." Then his grin faded. "You do know that whatever might happen, Edward, we're your family. Whatever might be happening with this boy and these voices-" Edward tried to stifle the rising guilt in him at not telling Carlisle –his friend, confidant, father, and not necessarily in that order—the full truth. "Whatever it is, you don't need to deal with it alone. That's what families are for, or so I hear," he added with a small laugh.

"I know, but…" he trailed off, unsure how to phrase his thoughts while making it clear he meant no offence. "I feel as if this is a matter I need to manage myself. I know that whatever it is, it will most likely affect everyone, but until then-"

Carlisle raised his hands. "You need not explain."

"But I do," Edward said loudly, sitting down on the couch, and Carlisle sat on the head of the couch next to him. His nearness calmed Edward slightly, as if Carlisle too had Jasper's abilities.

He bit his lip, and Carlisle sat without speaking while Edward phrased the whirlwind of thoughts in his mind. Below them, he could hear the rest of the family preparing for the day ahead, and his mind narrowed onto the soft talk between Jasper and Esme.

"Remember back when you changed Esme, after that?" Edward asked suddenly.

Carlisle frowned, nodding slowly. "It's not the sort of thing a person simply forgets, Edward. You-" _"Left us. Left me. Abandoned me."_The words were not spoken, because Carlisle was too kind to say them. But he knew Edward would hear them. If Edward could feel his emotions as well, he knew what the words would bring with them: betrayal, anger, disappointment. An absolute turmoil with a sense of loss tingeing it all.

"I didn't want Esme to be a vampire," Edward continued, not showing just how much the unsaid words wounded.

"No," Carlisle said flatly. They had never become comfortable speaking of that particular incident. "You didn't want Esme at all."

Edward nodded. "But you kept Esme anyway, because you already knew that she was your mate and-" he took in a deep breath. He didn't want to tell Carlisle that he knew he came second to Carlisle, even if he were the first to be Turned. He didn't need to either, because Carlisle already knew.

Things left unsaid but heard by both.

Edward felt Carlisle's hand come to rest on his shoulder, wondering if it was in apology. He let it be. "You wanted Esme, even though everyone-" only Edward, but Edward had been everyone at that point in their lives, "said otherwise. You knew that some actions needed to be taken, did you not?"

Carlisle hesitated before nodding. "I only wanted the best for us, and I knew that she would be it."

Edward nodded along understandingly. "You did it alone, Carlisle." He looked up at his friend. "I could have been there for you, but you didn't want me to be there-"

"You left us," Carlisle said, and Edward could hear the anger in his tone, drawn out by hurt more than anything, he'd guess. He didn't need to be Jasper, he just needed to know his friend. Carlisle looked like the picture of calm, though.

"All you had to do was ask," Edward said evenly. "You didn't, and as it was I returned when things had settled. Everything." On both ends.

Carlisle turned his head away for a moment, thinking, and Edward allowed him that privacy. Then he sighed, a weary sound that, just for a moment, reflected his true age. "Things needed to be done, Edward, and you couldn't be there for these things to happen."

"I know," Edward said quickly. "I don't blame you for that, not at all. Just like that, though," he changed the subject before things could become even more awkward, "things need to be done with me. I just feel like, like, they won't happen if I let other people come into it."

He slumped into the seat, feeling as if he had given a thoroughly inadequate explanation. Carlisle's grip on his shoulder tightened. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Carlisle spoke again, "I might not understand your decisions, Edward," Edward almost snorted at that, Carlisle hadn't understood most of the decisions Edward made, "but I've helped you through them anyway," he continued, as if hearing Edward's thoughts for a change.

Edward looked up, cocking his head. "Yes," he agreed slowly.

Carlisle smiled. "I don't need your power to know what you're thinking. So, while I might not understand your walking alone for this one, I have enough respect for you to allow you to do so."

Edward thought he might crack something as his grin widened. "You do?"

Carlisle laughed, ruffling his hair, and Edward ducked out of his grip. Carlisle, though, had years of practice at this, and only moved with him, hands threading through his hair. "And if all ends in tears and, well, rubbish, really, then I'll be here anyway, got it? You can't be running away from your family here and to the Volturi every time, after all."

Edward's grin still didn't falter, and when he moved to hug Carlisle, the man only held him, like he had when Edward had returned from his stint of feeding of humans, and from his first visit to the Volterra, and every time he chose to leave his family.

"At times, you're a complete clotpole," Carlisle muttered, losing all the collected composure he usually held.

Edward laughed softly at the strange curses that Carlisle let loose if they ever did. He breathed in, solely to take in that familiar scent of Carlisle. "And you're a, what was it, a rampollion?"

"Rampallion," Carlisle corrected, moving back, wearing a grin. "Harpy."

"Jolthead," Edward retorted, digging up every insult they'd thrown in the past. The long-ago past.

"Miscreant," Carlisle said quickly, pulling him as they stood.

"Ruffian," Edward said, then stopped. "No, that doesn't work at all, how about, barnacle?"

Carlisle sniggered. "Did Aro teach you that one?"

"Caius, actually," Edward grinned. "Scat."

"Wagtail."

"You're a greasy rabbit-sucker."

"If so, you're a quailing, boil-brained lewdster."

"Villainous, clay-brained, fool," Edward said, fast running out of insults. He'd forgotten them; lack of practice. Caius would be disappointed.

"Fool's from the wrong time period, you roguish, half-faced, raw-boned, dizzy-eyed strumpet," Carlisle said smoothly.

"You have an unfair advantage of actually having been born in that time period," Edward said, falling into a familiar argument.

"It's a pity yours doesn't have anything as outstanding as mine," Carlisle said, voice amused and not at all sympathetic. "I guess I really am superior in just about every manner."

"Oh, fuck off," Edward said, using the one word the new generation had normalized.

Carlisle made a face. "That's an ugly word."

"Curses are supposed to be ugly words, that's why they're curses," Edward grinned. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity, fuck." Carlisle pushed him slightly, and Edward laughed. "How could you be uncomfortable with one word considering you work in a hospital?"

Carlisle's brow rose. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"It's a hospital, don't people tend to curse when they're in pain?"

Carlisle shrugged. "By the time they get to me, they're usually in no condition to be talking." He sounded so factual about it that Edward couldn't help but laugh again. "Flap-dragon," he added. "Sounds so much more sensible a curse."

Only Carlisle would think so. And Aro, but they were both oddities amongst vampires in some way.

"Tottering varlot," Edward fired back. They were still exchanging curses upon entering the living room, Rosalie and Emmett watching them with some disbelieve before Rosalie shook her head at Carlisle's, "Rank full-gorged bladder."

"And they call me the childish one," she said loudly, only to be ignored by both of them.

Esme only smiled exasperatedly. "Both of you are loggerheaded, droning whipsters. Now, might we please go on to school," she pressed Edward's bag into his hands, "and work," she kissed Carlisle on the cheek lightly. "Now."

They obeyed, but before Edward closed the door of his car to leave, he heard Carlisle's parting, "Vain, hasty-witted scut."

* * *

Alice was a host. She knew how to flatter, and charm, and act like everybody's friend. She could sell someone a boy a batch of cookies by making it necessary for him to give them to his girlfriend while quilting said girlfriend into buying a Gingerbread Child for them both. It was a gift and she fully exploited it throughout the afternoon while selling their products.

Edward was talking to a girl with blond hair, and his ability was quite useful at this point. _"Huh, I don't want to put on any weight though-" A mom screaming that if she, Lindsay Anne Dumont gained any more weight she would be disgusted. "Yeah, definitely keep the weight down. Just look at these bloody biscuits, even if it is Edward Cullen selling them-"_Another advantage was his appearance, apparently. Something all of them were making use of. Rosalie, in particular, was surrounded by half the sports teams' members, Emmett attending to the girls of the Library society in the next booth.

"Don't worry about anything in these," Edward smiled. "Alice has this recipe that makes sure that she doesn't put on weight eating these, I tell her not to be paranoid about this stuff, but she worries." And that was all it took –along with another suitably charming smile—before the girl was walking away to her group of fellow giggling blondes, leaving Edward clutching a few coupons for twenty dollars.

He waved at Carlisle, who was walking around selling their cupcakes. Esme would be inside the building, he guessed, selling their Gingerbread Men. He gave the coupons to Jasper, who gave him another box of Gingerbreads. They had a steady routine going on here, coupled with a steady flow of coupons.

When he turned back, another girl had taken the place of the last one, a brunette this time, and Edward tried to make his smile look more natural. He heard her name in the thoughts of the friend standing next to her, along with a few other details that he stored, and quickly said. "Hi, Mary-Anne, right? From my math class."

Mary-Anne flushed. _"He knows my name, oh gosh."_She seemed like a nice enough girl. "Hey, Edward," she said shyly. "Uh, your family's selling some cupcakes, right?" She pulled something in her hand and a smaller figure popped up next to her. "My younger sister, Jessica, she'd like some."

Edward looked down at the small head. "Hello, Jessica," he said, grinning as he stooped to look at the girl. "Now, how old are you?"

The girl grinned right back, but with an innocence that he'd lost too long ago. "Six," she said, proudly.

"And you want cupcakes?" he confirmed.

She nodded, pointing at a bright pink one. "That one first." Edward nodded, picking it up tenderly before holding it out to her.

"Do you want it in a box or do you want to eat it straight?" he asked.

Mary-Anne frowned slightly. "I don't know, maybe we should just grab a couple-"

"He's asking me," Jessica said, letting go of her sister's hand to grab the pink cupcake. "I want five more," she said, biting into the pink cupcake and making a thorough mess of her mouth.

Edward stifled his laugh, selecting five more similarly colored cupcakes and storing them in neat actions, the box itself pink. He held it out, "Six lovely cupcakes for a lovelier six-year-old," he said, bowing slightly as the girl laughed.

Mary-Anne was smiling even as she attempted to –and failed—to clean her sister. "Thanks, Edward." Edward shrugged and smiled as they walked away. _"Great, now she won't be screaming half the day which means Mom won't be screaming the whole day."_Edward tried not to frown. Families were strange, causing pain and tears where they shouldn't.

"You probably know more about her now than you did sitting in the same classroom for the past few months, right?" Jasper asked.

Edward looked at him. "Yes, and I do so wish I hadn't."

_"I'm such a good friend, sometimes." A contemplative sigh. "Even with all this weirdness going on, do I ditch on my friend? No, I come with her to help her stupid school. It's not even like I've got that much cash to spare."_

Edward froze. He was here. His Jake was here.

"Edward?" Jasper said his name, and it sounded as if he'd already called him a few times.

Edward turned quickly. "He's here."

It seemed that every Cullen around was shamelessly eavesdropping, for they all turned at the statement, abandoning their duties and customers. "Where is that mutt?" Rosalie muttered, eyes shifting around. Emmett came up behind her, nodding in agreement, also scanning the crowd.

Then he frowned, breathing in. "Hey, do you smell that?"

He focused. Cupcakes, sweets, chocolates, sweat, trees, perfume, spices- The scents were quickly overwhelming him and he stopped, wincing. He saw Jasper do the same, already facing difficulty with his ability in the crowd –which was why he was left keeping track of the coupons at the back—and Alice turn back to her job, shrugging apologetically. He nodded in understanding. Rosalie groaned.

"What is it?" Edward asked.

Emmett was tense. "Shifters. Quite a lot of them."

Edward frowned. He hadn't scented anything- _Woods._Of course. He had scented them, but he'd been searching for a different scent; the scent vampires were supposed to smell around shape-shifters. He was different; his bond or whatever it was called with Jake made the scents different.

Alice turned back and whispered, low enough so the humans wouldn't overhear. "I can't see a lot of people. They're definitely here."

Rosalie's teeth were clenched, fisting and un-fisting her hands. Emmett laid his hands on her shoulders, rubbing soothingly. "Don't worry, they can't do anything. Too many people."

_"Leeches. Gods, they're stinking up the whole place." Tanned skin of a group of people walking into the school entrance. Bella walking towards them, smiling softly. "Bella should be warned- no, Sam would kill me. But I could make it subtle."_

Edward tried not to let his panic show. His family was already being quite accommodating with his issue of hearing Jake's thoughts. His being a shape-shifter might push them over the edge. "Edward, calm down," Jasper snapped. He was looking a little harried himself; the shape-shifters were setting them all on the edge, if for completely different reasons.

"If they come here-" Rosalie snarled.

"They're probably here because they have friends here," Edward reasoned. It sounded logical. It sounded as if he didn't know the situation first-hand, as if he wasn't hearing Jake think about Bella pleading with all of them to attend the fundraiser. "If they come to our stall, well, I don't think they'd be doing it willingly in the first place. So don't provoke them." He stared pointedly at Rosalie. "Do not start a fight. Not here."

She didn't say or do anything for a long while before nodding jerkily. "Fine." She wasn't pleased with the situation, but who amongst them was? She turned back to the boys, who'd been waiting patiently. Anything for her, of course.

Emmett rolled his shoulders. "I don't like this," he muttered. "We're not supposed to be so close. It's just- it's fucking wrong."

Edward tried not to wince.

Jasper was looking at him curiously, and he shook his head. "Let's just finish this," Edward said, turning back to the next girl in line.

_"Christ, would Leah stop fucking complaining? As if any of us like the stench any more than she does. Great, Bella's dad. Probably writing wedding invitations in his head: Isabella Swan weds Jacob Black. That sounds sick."_

"-the green one with the black symbols, and that red one, please," the girl said.

Edward didn't know her name, barely smiling as he went through the routine of taking the cupcakes and packaging them. He took the coupons, mumbling what he hoped sounded like, 'thanks,' and slipped it to Jasper.

"You're not yourself," Jasper said. "The boy, he's-"

_"Oh god, please let her be joking. Please, dear gods. No, no, no, I might throw up. Dr. Leech? I've got to meet this guy?" Bella walking towards Carlisle, holding Jake's arm. "Even he doesn't look so happy about this."_

Jake was meeting his parents and they hadn't even met. Edward tried not to groan out loud, but something in his expression must have shown his displeasure, because there was immediately a rush of thought in the girl before him, worry and self-consciousness coming forward in absolute unwarranted detail. Edward tried to smile a little brighter, practically shoving the box into her hands. "Enjoy," he said, turning again to give Jasper the coupons.

Jasper was pale. "Edward, what's-"

"For your own sake, do not concentrate on what I feel like right now," Edward snapped, ignoring Alice's glance –whether it was concern for him or displeasure of his tone he didn't know, and didn't care at this point.

_"I can't believe I have to talk to a blood sucking creature like it's a human, and a good one too the way Bella keeps gushing." Desperation tinging his tone. "They've abandoned me. My brothers, my family, the fucking cowards. I'm going to kill them all later. Slowly. Yes, challenge all of them, screw Sam, this is just-" Screaming."_

Edward scowled at the noise. Jake wasn't happy with the situation, and he couldn't imagine what Carlisle would be feeling. "Thanks," the girl before him said brightly, and he didn't bother smiling in return.

_"His wife, of course. Does she have to smile like that? If you didn't know, you'd almost think she was normal. As though she doesn't want to kill all of us, monsters, all of them-"_

The insults weren't being held back. Edward wasn't sure if he wanted to listen – he was torn between some unexplainable attachment to Jake and complete love for his parents, and the fact that he was torn to begin with, not in full support of his family, was hurting. He clenched his fists, breathing in deeply.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned back. Rosalie. "Go take a break," she said. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you look worse than I feel at all this. Just go."

Edward couldn't even thank her, just stumbled to the back, past Jasper –barely registering the wave of calm— walking even further to the school. He stopped.

_"-going to kill me. I'm talking to leeches. Actually talking to them about bloody school." Slightly hysterical laughter. "They're all going to kill me. They don't care about me. I can't stand them. Bella, for all that is good in this world, let me go." Fingers wrapped tightly around an arm. "If not for the fact that I don't want to break her fingers, I swear-"_

Edward walked right past the entrance and went through the side. He went past the cafeteria, feeling the eyes on him, then past the field. Building 7. Politics. Blissfully empty.

He slipped in and closed the door behind him, then sank to the floor.

Edward closed his eyes, letting his elbows rest on his knees, hands tugging at his hair. The sounds behind him were muffled; the thoughts of people everywhere behind a physical barrier that somehow became more significant.

_"Thank you, Bella. Wait, no, no, too many leeches. Do they actually have a stall? I can't fucking believe it. They're parasites. They want to feed on every person here and they're feeding them instead? What, they're keeping them nice and plump? Like Hansel and Gretel except they use themselves as bait."_

He was very thankful suddenly for having left the stall. He didn't think he'd have been able to survive knowing that Jake was there. He still didn't know what exactly his boy looked like, or sounded like in reality, or his precise scent, or- it didn't matter. Edward wouldn't have been able to deal with it. That much he knew.

Edward suddenly found himself looking at his family from a different set of eyes. From a boy who detested them. It wasn't a common situation. They looked as they usually did, but, somehow, worse. Jake's mind was already twisting the image.

The stall looked darker than it usually did. Rosalie's beautiful face sporting her usual smirk. Now, she looked cruel, vengeful. Emmett's easy smile looked deceitful, his large hands dangerous as they sorted through different cookies. The scars on Jasper's face stood out with jarring sharpness. Alice's petite form, even, looked poised to attack. Everything the same, but Jake didn't like them, and his mind was a reflection of that.

_"There's one missing."_

It had never occurred to Edward that Jake knew of his existence beyond 'leech' or 'parasite' or any of the insults he flung so easily at his family. That he knew them as separate entities.

_"When's Bella gonna realize I don't care about these things? These- can't even call them people. Who the hell cares if Edward freaking Cullen likes her? Fuck, somebody save me."_ Jake had said _his name_. Edward felt like letting out a sigh, or something equally girlish. Because Jake knew him, knew his name.

Edward knew he was smiling, even if Jake didn't like him. Because knowing was the first step, or so he convinced himself. The rest would follow. Somehow.

_"Of course, my friend likes the leech. Like every single girl around here. I never thought I'd be grateful for Leah till now. At least she has the sense to keep to the right people. Okay, now buy the bloody cookies and leave- no, can't believe she's making me pay for these. I'm funding a pack of-"_

Edward cut him off because Jake tended to get repetitive with his insults. There were only so many ways to phrase 'blood-sucker' before it became bothersome. He wondered how much pain Rosalie had to be in, standing next to a shape-shifter without being allowed to lunge and claw and show exactly how much she hated their kind. Emmett, he thought, would be holding her back, and Jasper would be sending so much calm in her direction that even Jake had to be feeling the effects.

He was. His thoughts were mellower. Not calm, or happy. But less vicious.

_"Now we're off, please, let me leave. I'm only here to donate and leave. Sam. Save me, Sam." A yell. "I wish we could do the mind-link thing in human form." Sudden laughter. "Great, now Bella thinks I'm crazy for laughing to myself and I know Quil would be disgusted that I bought Gingerbread Men from the leeches. Don't taste half-bad, though."_

Edward laughed, the sound echoing off the white walls of the empty corridor. To imagine, a shape-shifter eating the food of a vampire. He didn't think he'd ever see the sight. Or hear it, as the situation were.

Jake was moving further away though. He couldn't hear distance or anything, but he knew the fact for what it was.

Edward stood slowly, opening the door and walking out, moving quickly through the swarm of people to reach the stall once again. He walked in, and Jasper glanced up. "You're better," he said, and nodded approvingly. "You missed something quite exciting."

He raised a brow. "Oh?"

Rosalie turned to him. "Yeah, it was a whole lot of fucking fun," she growled. "I had to talk to a shape-shifter." She was still smart enough to stay quiet, though.

"You mean talk at," Alice interrupted, smiling. She was more amused than disgusted by the situation. Rosalie's little predicament overpowered any annoyance she felt at the shifter's presence at her precious stall. "You snapped so hard I thought you might break something."

Jasper smiled as Rosalie snarled. "He was right there. The smell was-" she shuddered.

Emmett came up, kissing her on the cheek. He had the most sensitive sense of smell amongst all of them. "I know, babe. Don't worry, we'll go home and take a nice long bath to get rid of it." He slipped his arms around her waist, kissing along her shoulder, and she couldn't resist her smile.

Edward thought that they would be doing far more than just bathing later on, and made a mental note to keep clear of their minds for the rest of the day. Some things he really did not need to overhear.

"How's your boy anyway?" Emmett asked, looking up at him.

Edward shrugged. "Fine."

"Then your little freak-out session?" Rosalie asked bluntly.

"It was getting quite loud," Edward said honestly. "He was around; the nearness must have made it sharper or something. I could hardly block him out."

Rosalie looked at him for a while longer, suspicious, then allowed it. "Whatever, I can't take the little girls. I'll go back to my guys; you handle the gals who come around." As if on cue, a girl walked to the stall, two braids making her look younger than she probably was. Rosalie smirked. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do, especially not when it borders on pedophilia."

Emmett let out a bark of laughter and Edward rolled his eyes. "You disgust me," he said loudly, turning back to the girl.

_"Great, and now we're out of here." A view of the school entrance."_The girl smiled widely, showing off her practically sparkling braces. "Just three, please, any will do, just no chocolate icing."

Edward smiled, taking three cupcakes and packing them easily. "Here you go, and thank you very much," he added as he took the coupons from her.

The girl blushed and turned.

Jake was leaving, and Edward didn't know whether he was more relieved or upset. Both. He wanted Jake around. Even while he was panicking, he felt something –if he were alive, he would say his heart had sped up, but it was grander. It was as if he could feel warmth again. But it wasn't worth it. Worth the worry of having his family puzzle the pieces together and watch them fit together to form everything stupid and dangerous-

"Hi, could I have two? One purple, one blue." This girl was older than his human form, but she smiled with flirtatiousness all the same.

"Of course," Edward said, picking out the cakes.

"You're Edward Cullen, right?" she asked.

"Yes, I am," Edward said.

"I'm Amy," she introduced herself. "Thanks," she said as Edward passed her the box, not even glancing at it. "You know, we're having a little party later, at the beach, near the shacks." He knew what she meant, and already guessed her purpose for coming up to the stall, but could only hope that she wouldn't ask- "You can come if you want, bring your family."

Said family was staring at the exchange without shame, Alice looking on with a fond smile and Rosalie like- well, Edward was preparing himself for the mocking of a century when they went back home. Or maybe earlier; Rosalie found it difficult to control her mouth sometimes.

"Maybe," he said simply. "I'm not sure if we'll be able to, we have to finish up here and check with our parents and all."

Amy looked disappointed. "Oh," she brightened quickly though, "well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me." She walked away to her group of friends, who started talking almost immediately, leaving Edward in no doubt of the subject of their conversation. And there was the fact that they kept turning back to look at him.

"Got yourself a girl, Edward?" Rosalie asked. "Found your mate, oh, I can see it. Edward and Amy, a romantic wedding at the beach-"

"Shut up," Edward said, resisting the urge to throw something at her. The only things he had were cupcakes and Alice would kill him if he ruined any.

Rosalie only laughed.

* * *

"Edward's found his soul mate," Rosalie announced to Carlisle and Esme. Then she paused. "Were you talking about those shape-shifters?"

Carlisle nodded. "I had the strange experience of speaking to one today, with Isabella Swan, an old patient of mine. But what is this about Edward's mate?"

"She's just joking," Edward bit out, glaring half-heartedly as he dropped onto the couch next to Carlisle, letting his head drop on the blond man's shoulder. "I hate girls."

"Why, cause we have cooties?" Alice teased.

Edward groaned, and Carlisle let out a soft chuckle. "Sounds like you've had a hard day."

Edward groaned again. "There were all these girls, and they were all thinking the same things. Half of them aren't even going to eat their cupcakes, they're all on bloody diets. And after Amy-"

Rosalie let out a drawn-out, "Ooh. Edward remembers her name, does he?"

"That's a sign," Emmett said loudly. "Edward never remembers people unless they're important. He's in lurve," he let his tongue curl around the word. "You'd better invite us to the wedding, bro. I'll be your best man-"

Edward threw a pillow at him. He caught it easily and sat down, pulling Rosalie onto his lap. "I hate all of you," Edward said pathetically.

Alice bent down to kiss him on the forehead. "Don't worry." She straightened, moving away. "I'll take care of all the wedding arrangements myself, you won't have to lift a finger," the traitor said giggling.

Carlisle chuckled, the traitor. "You were saying, after Amy?" Esme prompted.

Edward mumbled something into Carlisle's shoulder, not looking up. "I'm sorry?" Carlisle asked.

"They kept asking me out," Edward whined.

Carlisle laughed at that. "Shouldn't you be used to that?"

"They're not usually so forthcoming about their attentions," Edward said frowning. "It's like the spirit of the occasion or some other rubbish got into them."

"You weren't rude, were you?" Esme asked. Her concern was not misguided, considering Rosalie wouldn't have bothered with politeness, Emmett would have laughed at their faces, Jasper would have let them down with a cutting politeness and Alice would have been gentle, if mocking.

"No," Edward assured her.

"Barely," Alice added unhelpfully from the floor. "He was losing it by the time we finished. There was a gaggle of girls standing while we were closing up. Some of them were actually quite pretty."

"But none as much as Ay-Mee," Rosalie said.

"Amy was Edward's first, she was special," Jasper said solemnly.

"I hate all of you," Edward said, ignored by all except Carlisle, who patted his shoulder comfortingly. Of course, he laughed a moment after, almost forfeiting the gesture. "I would've taken shifters over them any day."

There was more laughter, but Edward felt Carlisle tense under him. _"Speaking of shifters, Edward, we need to talk later. Away from prying ears."_Edward didn't move at the words in Carlisle's mind, but it was mostly because he was frozen with something more than shock. Fear, perhaps.

_"Edward, are you okay?"_he heard Jasper.

He turned, and nodded once. They both knew what that meant. He wasn't, but he couldn't talk about it just yet.

"So, you actually spoke to a shifter?" Alice asked, drawing her knees to her chest, listening as intently as any child would a bed-time story. Edward wondered if this one would have the vampire kill the shape-shifter and have them all live happily ever after.

"Yes, Isabella Swan-"

Rosalie frowned. "What does she have to do with shifters?"

"She's friends with one," Carlisle said casually, and Edward wondered if anyone else noticed that he hadn't specified which one. No, they were too caught up in the story. "He looked quite sickened, actually. Well, the scent was quite strong, but he was polite, and obviously a loyal friend, if he was willing to approach a vampire for a friend's sake."

"Of course, you'd compliment it," Emmett said, grinning. "You're too nice, Carlisle, really."

Carlisle shrugged. "I can't imagine that they're all that terrible when they aren't intent on ripping us to shreds."

"It's the 'ripping us to shreds' bit that we're worried about," Jasper said with some amusement.

Alice was looking worried. "He didn't say anything to you, though, did he? Threaten you or anything?"

"No, no," Esme assured her. "Nothing of that sort. He kept his calm. He was quite nice about all of it actually. I was pleasantly surprised by his behavior." Except that he was having a mental breakdown in his mind, Edward wanted to add. He didn't of course. He wasn't a fool.

Alice frowned. "I still don't like them," she said sullenly; childishly.

"They make you go black, of course you don't," Edward said, meaning it as a joke, but it took half a second too long for Alice to smile at him. He wanted to search her mind then, but the first slide of thoughts was a loud, _"You don't mean something, yet nothing to me. I can see there's so much to learn. It's all so close, and yet so far-"_Tarzan it was, then.

They dispersed then, and Edward didn't think about the short moment.

Carlisle was still there, and Edward calmed, stopping the short flows of breath that he needed to take while pretending to be human. "You know," Edward said suddenly, "I sometimes think that we forget that we all started human."

Carlisle's mind does not register any real surprise; he knows this all too well. Aro used to tell him, "Vampires and humans, any sort of ill sentiment we share with one another, I believe that it is completely natural." Aro had actually given it serious thought when Edward had expressed concerns –a long time ago, these worries had dulled and eventually just disappeared- and tried to explain it.

"Sometimes, you think we also forget that the wolves were once human?" Edward continued..

This time, Carlisle's mind did question, a string of comments on the incongruity of the question. It relieves him, almost, because this meant Carlisle didn't _know_. "Speaking of wolves, the one I met today," Carlisle said smoothly, and Edward suddenly thought of a hundred other instances where Carlisle knew where he shouldn't and Edward felt something tighten in his gut. "I think he might," Carlisle faltered. Curiouser and curiouser.

Edward raised his head. "Yeah?"

"It's very possible that he-" Carlisle did not continue.

"Carlisle?"

"Listen to Alice," Carlisle said. Edward frowned, confusion clear on his face. "Please."

Sometimes Aro said things like that too, a simple demand that he phrased as a request even though everyone involved understood it for the imperative it was. With Aro, Edward stopped questioning it because he trusted Aro. With Carlisle, though, he'd never questioned, and he didn't intend to start now.

"Okay." Edward leaned back on Carlisle, and they stayed in that position the entire night.

The next morning, Alice told him that she couldn't see his future any longer.

* * *

I know, I know - this is how many months late? It was literally nesting on my laptop, so this is unbeta'ed and might be terrible, but I don't have the heart to change the work and decided something's better than silence. Also: is anyone willing to beta by any chance? If you do, PM or email me, please, I'd really appreciate it. (:


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